(28 January 2016 – Australia) The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reports that Cupertino based tech giant, Apple may sue Australian banks should they have breached negotiation agreements surrounding new payment service Apple Pay.
AFR has reportedly seen the confidentiality agreements that explicitly highlight bank representative being liable for “…any disclosure for or use of discloser's confidential information by the recipient or any of its consultants”.
According to reports, the agreement terms are similar to those revealed in documents filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Hampshire by GT Advanced Technologies, a supplier to Apple.
That case revealed that the terms set a penalty of US$50 million ($A71 million), however lawyers have told the AFR that Apple would likely need to sue Australian banks as this cannot be enforced locally.
The tech giant has thus far failed to convince Australia’s biggest banks to share the $2.5 billion in fees they get from businesses each time they accept a credit cards.
Only American Express has signed up to the Apple Pay service in Australia, as well as markets such as Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.
According to East & Partners' Merchant Payments Report, only 35.9 pecent of Australian businesses accept American Express, where-as its major card competitors, Visa and MasterCard have 100 percent penetration.