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A judge has hit mattress retailer Emma Sleep with an $18 million penalty after it admitted to repeatedly misleading consumers about discounts, saying the ACCC's proposed $36 million was not needed to achieve deterrence, noting there was no financial loss to consumers.
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.
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 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 said he will not be able to decide all the suppression applications in the ACCC’s misuse of market power case against Mastercard ahead of trial, saying the court was facing an “unreasonable, if not oppressive” burden.
The consumer watchdog is pushing for a $36 million penalty against Emma Sleep after it admitted to repeatedly misleading consumers about discounts, but the online mattress retailer says a $2 million fine is adequate.
Mastercard has lost its challenge to a ruling requiring it to hand over communications about agreements with retailers in a misuse of market power case brought by the competition regulator.
The competition regulator has cited the public interest in its misuse of market power case against Mastercard in fighting suppression applications by the credit card giant and its heavy-hitter customers, including Coles and Visa.
The High Court won't weigh in on a case over strip searches of Qatar Airways passengers, following a mixed ruling that revived claims against the airline but found Qatar's aviation authority could not be sued.