The Federal Court has reached a verdict in the case of ALDI versus EFTPOS Payments Australia Limited (ePAL),ruling in favour of full and fair disclosure of EFTPOS fees in Australia.
In it’s decision, the Court criticised ePAL, the representative of banks, Coles and Woolworths, for failing to be clear about who would be affected by its increased EFTPOS interchange fees.
ePal announced in March that a 10 cent raise of the interchange fees would begin in October of this year. The ALDI Stores vs. ePal case revealed that some banks have notified retailers of the raise while other banks had not, with Coles and Woolworths to be left out of the fee rise.
Tyro Payments, the first new entrant into the EFTPOS business in 14 years, welcomes the decision.
“It is unfair that retailers and consumers will or may be burdened while Coles and Woolworths are not affected,” Tyro Payments CEO Jost Stollman said.
“There is no more equal playing field, not for ALDI and not for Tyro’s small and medium merchants.”
Any fee increase affects small businesses with small purchases, such as bus tickets and newspapers, due to it being more expensive to process those payments through EFTPOS.
Considering debit card transactions have grown from 313 million in 1996 to 2.5 billion in 2011, Tyro regards this matter of vital importance to the Australian community, especially banks.
“After the Federal Court judgement, banks should reconsider the fee increase. Instead, they should keep EFTPOS a safe and low cost debit card solution for Australian retailers and consumers,” said Stollman.
