Mastercard has filed a formal statement of defence in the Federal Court action brought against it by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for alleged anti-competitive conduct in the debit payments market.
However, the contents of the global card scheme’s defence are the subject of court orders preventing their publication.
Justice Michael Wigney of the Federal Court in Sydney last week issued orders banning publication of evidence contained in the defence.
The publication ban also applies to disclosure of the affidavit’s contents in open court.
The ACCC announced in May that it was suing several Mastercard entities for alleged conduct that undermined the rollout of least cost routing in the debit payments market.
Least cost routing enables Australian retailers to choose which card network processes contactless debit transactions.
The ACCC alleges that in response to the introduction of least cost routing by the Reserve Bank, Mastercard entered into major agreements with more than 20 retailers, including supermarkets and fast food chains.
According to the ACCC, the agreements gave these businesses discounted rates for Mastercard credit card transactions, provided they processed all or most of their Mastercard-Eftpos debit card transactions through Mastercard rather than the Eftpos network.
The ACCC argues that these agreements meant that the retailers would not process significant debit card volumes through the Eftpos network even though Eftpos was often the lowest cost provider.
“We allege that Mastercard had substantial power in the market for the supply of credit card acceptance services, and that a substantial purpose of Mastercard’s conduct was to hinder the competitive process by deterring businesses from using Eftpos for processing debit transactions,” said ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb in May.
“We are concerned that Mastercard’s alleged conduct meant that businesses did not receive the full benefit of the increased competition that was intended to flow from the least cost routing initiative.”
A case management hearing is scheduled to be held in the Federal Court in Sydney on 28 November.