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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.
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.
Mastercard can pursue an appeal of a ruling for the competition regulator requiring the credit card giant to hand over communications about its agreements with retailers, which are at the centre of a misuse of market power case.
Facing allegations that it misused its market power with major retailers, Mastercard is challenging a ruling for the ACCC that lays bare discussions about merchant agreements involving inhouse lawyers.