The man who took on North Sydney’s parking meters and the 8.25% service fee

The company behind North Sydney Council’s new $2 million parking meter system has defended itself against accusations of breaching consumer law by charging drivers an 8.25 per cent transaction fee on every payment.

For months, the council has faced extensive backlash against the PayStay system, which is cashless and in several locations only allows drivers to pay via smartphone, requiring them to either create an account or hand over their phone number.

Simon Berry complained about new parking meters which contain fees for processingCredit: Nick Moir

But Crows Nest resident Simon Berry was annoyed by something else: despite being told it would cost him $6.90 to park in a spot for one hour, he was being charged $7.47.

“Unless you go through the process of clicking on a link inside the terms and conditions, typing in a zone number, and pressing it, you won’t know the fee that’s being charged,” he said.

A physical parking meter that allows card payments.Credit: North Sydney Council

So the 27-year-old wrote to PayStay, informing the company he believed the transaction fees were in breach of Australian consumer law because they were unavoidable.

The ACCC says businesses must “display the total price of a product or service as a single figure” and that the price displayed must be “the lowest amount a customer could pay, including any taxes, duties and unavoidable or pre-selected extra fees”.

In an email to Berry one month later, which he shared on TikTok to 265,000 views, PayStay said it had obtained external legal advice and had decided “to make some updates and other changes”.

“We have also reviewed your concerns regarding any misleading and deceptive conduct,” a company representative said.

“We have identified areas for improvement and will refine our [user experience] to further clarify the applicable fees and council charges.”

In a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for Orikan – PayStay’s parent company – said they did “not agree with certain inaccurate and potentially misleading assertions” made on social media.

North Sydney Council’s map of touch-n-go parking meters, in purple, and full payment meters, in orange, in the North Sydney CBD.Credit: North Sydney Council

“The 8.25 per cent service fee arises from using the PayStay app and is different from a card surcharge (and associated requirements),” the statement said.

“We regularly update the PayStay app to refine its features and functionality, including in response to user feedback. We will continue to enhance our products in this manner.”

A North Sydney Council spokesperson said customers could avoid fees by walking to a real meter (not the touch-n-go system Berry used), but admitted that some parking zones only had touch-n-go meters. The council will add 30 more full meters.

They defended the surcharge as being associated with “additional services provided by Orikan through their app and meters”, but did not identify what they were.

“In making the decision to implement this service, council chose not to absorb the cost,” they said. “This was to ensure the surcharge would not be distributed across all payment options or be passed onto ratepayers.”

Berry isn’t convinced: “I just hate being ripped off, And I hate it when companies ... appear to be deviant, let me put it that way.”

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