Most Recent
The trial judge in enforcement action against Mastercard had harsh words Thursday about the company's witnesses, including a top executive whose testimony he said was "most unsatisfactory and unimpressive".
Mastercard argued Wednesday it relied on legal advice in drafting alleged anti-competitive deals with major retailers, as the judge questioned the reliability of some witnesses for the payments giant, who recalled "virtually nothing".
Kicking off its appeal of a finding that it couldn't walk away from a $672 million merger agreement with Mayne Pharma, US drug company Cosette has told a court that Mayne was not upfront about its financial position prior to the deal.
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.
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.