ACCC-MasterCard case again put on hold

The Federal Court case, launched in 2022, has been delayed again after MasterCard only produced 900 documents of the 10,000 required.

The ACCC’s case against MasterCard, launched in 2022, was due to begin next month. Picture: David Mariuz

The ACCC case against credit card giant MasterCard was put on hold again on Monday after the company failed to meet deadlines to produce relevant documents.

The case, launched in March 2022, was due to start late next month, but at a hearing before the Federal Court in Sydney it was delayed until April next year.

The case centres on conduct alleged after the Reserve Bank ordered card issuers to adopt least-cost routing to give consumers the cheapest debit card services.

The ACCC alleged MasterCard did deals with 20 retail groups, offering them cut-price credit card services if they agreed to direct all debit card transactions to it.

In a statement in March 2022, the ACCC said “The agreements gave these businesses discounted rates for MasterCard credit card transactions, provided they committed to processing all or most of their MasterCard-EFTPOS debit card transactions through MasterCard rather than the EFTPOS network.

“This meant that these businesses would not process significant debit card volumes through the EFTPOS network even though EFTPOS was often the lowest cost provider,” it added.

MasterCard was directed to supply the court with 10,000 documents, but so far only 900 have been supplied.

This is the third delay in the MasterCard case proceeding to formal hearings and highlights the ACCC’s difficulty in bringing multinational giants to court.

MasterCard has agreed to fund ACCC costs for the delays and through its barrister apologised for the delay.

The case was the first major competition action launched by ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb after she took the job in early 2022.

It is also a key initiative in cutting the costs of living as higher debit card charges increases the costs of goods bought through cards.

It also comes as the RBA considers whether to consider credit card surcharges.

Some, including McLean Roche’s Grant Halverson, have urged the surcharges be dropped altogether.

When unveiling her enforcement priorities last week, Ms Cass-Gottlieb highlighted misleading statements over the impact of surcharges and other costs on final retail prices.