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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.
The competition regulator will further probe US keg company MicroStar's proposed acquisition of the assets of rival keg pooling service Konvoy, saying the transaction could substantially lessen competition.
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 operator of eyewear franchises OPSM and Laubman & Pank has paid a $19,800 penalty after the ACCC found it failed to provide up-to-date disclosures to prospective franchisees, several years after promising to make its franchise system more transparent.
Parliament has rushed through legislation doubling penalties against petrol companies for pricing misconduct to $100 million, as prices skyrocket due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.