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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 has hit back at the ACCC’s claims that it sought to prevent competition with EFTPOS through strategic agreements with large retailers, saying the deals were struck for “benign and pro-competitive” reasons.
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.
Mastercard made ‘strategic’ agreements with large retailers like Coles and David Jones to keep them from routing through EFTPOS, offering discounted exchange rates that left smaller businesses footing the bill, the ACCC told the court on the first day of trial.
A judge has struck out claims against Google’s parent company Alphabet in a class action alleging the digital giant abused its dominance in digital advertising, finding they were "ambiguous".
Coles has told a court that its decision to change its discount policies was unsurprising during a period of significant inflation, denying claims by the ACCC that its ‘Down Down’ promotions were misleading.
Coles increased prices on hundreds of products only as part of a plan to later mark them with a ‘Down Down’ promotion, despite the price being lower only weeks before, the ACCC has argued.