Eftpos blacklist gets an airing

The existence, if there is one, of a bank blacklist for the supply of Eftpos facilities received an airing in the Federal Court of Australia, which provided a procedural ruling two weeks ago in a case brought by the operators of the Volume Plus network of petrol stations.

According to Adil Magar, one of the principals of Volume Plus, a St George bank staffer asserted, in a conversation in mid 2009, that: "You will never get Eftpos in Australia again. From any bank. You have been blacklisted on the system with all the banks."

The St George staffer, a Mr Keuneman - and once again, according to Magar - claimed the reason for the termination of their customer's Eftpos facilities was on receipt of "a letter from the Workplace Ombudsman. After we received their letter, the bank decided to terminate your Eftpos merchant facilities."

The plaintiff and the banks (St George and its owner, Westpac, as respondents) did not make it clear to the judge what matters were of concern to the Workplace Ombudsman and in turn to St George, or even why matters of concern to the Workplace Ombudsman might concern St George.

Volume Plus initially managed to secure a replacement service, from St George, under a different company name (Tadco Solutions) though St George terminated that Eftpos service in early February 2010.

Daily turnover at the ten petrol stations has halved from $50,000 since losing the Eftpos service.

The judge, Alan Flick, wrote that there is "at least some basis for a conclusion that there may be a contravention of sections 45D and 51AC of the Trade Practices Act" and thus, also, "a conclusion that the right to terminate the Agreement … was exercised other than in good faith."

The judge did not, however, grant an injunction against St George from terminating the Eftpos services for a second time.