Tyro Payments has taken legal action against one of its agents, claiming that it breached its obligations under the agency agreement by offering a competing product to Tyro merchants.
Tyro announced yesterday that it has commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales against Kounta Pty Ltd. Kounta is part of a group of companies that includes Lightspeed Commerce, which offers point of sale systems to merchants.
Tyro claims that Kounta was offering its merchants the Lightspeed Payments product while it was Tyro’s agent under a contract between the parties, as well as being an authorised representative under Tyro’s Australian Financial Services Licence.
Tyro said Lightspeed’s payment solution is a recent offering. It said in a statement: “Tyro has become aware that Kounta is marketing to Tyro merchants and encouraging them to adopt Lightspeed Payments as their payments solution.
“Tyro considers that this conduct by Kounta directly breaches Kounta’s obligations to Tyro, including its contractual obligations as Tyro’s agent.”
Tyro is seeking orders restraining Kounta from breaching its non-solicitation obligations. It is also seeking damages and an indemnification for all losses in relation to the breaches.