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A judge has found Coles engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct when advertising products with a 'Down Down' discount, in a win for the consumer regulator and a class action.
Trial in a case alleging Mastercard misused its market power by striking deals with retailers to defend revenues against EFTPOS routing has heard external competition lawyers suggested removing the word 'routing' from its contract with Woolworths.
Mastercard risked losing half its revenue from retail interchange fees as a result of the Reserve Bank's least-cost routing initiative, and struck deals with top retailers to defend its core business, a court was told Wednesday.
A trial judge has heard that Mastercard's top Australian executives discussed stripping Woolworths of strategic merchant status if the supermarket giant routed customer transactions through the cheaper EFTPOS network.
Mastercard's Australia boss was anxious to sign a deal with Woolworths on payments processing after learning that Coles had chosen to route all debit transactions through the cheaper EFTPOS network, a court has heard.
Mastercard considered threatening Coles with losing its discounted interchange fees to rival Woolworths if the supermarket chain re-routed customer debit and credit transactions away from the payments giant, a trial judge has heard in the ACCC's misuse of market power case.
Mastercard's APAC head was "perfectly comfortable" with the threat of removal of discounted interchange rates to cut a deal with Coles to route transactions through its payment network, a court has heard.
Trial begins Tuesday in the consumer regulator's case against Woolworths over alleged dodgy discounts, with the supermarket chain set to argue there was nothing phony about its 'Prices Dropped' campaign.
Former ACCC chair Allan Fels says the competition regulator appears to have a strong misuse of market power case against Mastercard, but noted the credit card giant may raise arguments about two-sided markets in defending the claims.
Mastercard executives who claim they had no anti-competitive purpose when pursuing agreements with retailers to favour its network are expected to face cross-examination about responses given to the Reserve Bank about its least cost routing initiative.