(16th December 2003 – Australia) The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has backed a bank-led recommendation not to charge wholesale fees for EFTPOS transactions.ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said the watchdog had initially indicated it would refuse to rubber stamp the EFTPOS fee proposal as it felt the level of competition between providers was “insufficient to ensure the sustained pass-through of cost savings to cardholders and was unlikely to result in competitive merchant service fees”.
“The ACCC was particularly concerned that, in such an environment, the revised merchant service fees may disadvantage small businesses,” Samuel said.
He said the ACCC had changed its opinion as it had received a commitment that access reform would go ahead.
“The Australian Payments Clearing Association has provided assurances that it is developing an access regime as a priority. In addition, a recent Reserve Bank of Australia submission states that should industry efforts to voluntarily reform access falter, the Bank would seriously consider, in the interests of promoting efficiency and competition in the Australian payments systems, designating the EFTPOS system,” Samuel said.