The ACCC is seeking views on a court enforceable undertaking which has been offered by three Australian payment services providers seeking to merge.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is concerned the proposed merger of Eftpos with BPay and New Payments Platform Australia may impact payments competition. Eftpos, BPay, and NPPA announced plans in December to amalgamate. Eftpos operates a network of payment terminals, Bpay is an electronic bill payments system, while NPPA is the company charged with the oversight of all of the transactions moving through Australia’s updated payments system, the NPP. If approval to merge is granted, the company will emerge as Australian Payments Plus Ltd, or AP+. In March, Industry Committee Administration Pty Ltd (ICA), the company representing the three providers, applied to the ACCC for authorisation to merge. The ACCC is now seeking views on the proposed undertaking [PDF] offered by ICA. The proposed undertaking seeks to address concerns by industry participants that the proposed merger could result in a reduction in investment and support for Eftpos, and a decrease in the availability of least-cost routing (LCR). LCR is an initiative aimed at promoting competition in the debit card market and helping to reduce payment costs in the economy. When a customer makes a contactless «tap-and-go» payment with their dual-network debit card — not credit cards, however — the merchant may choose to send the transaction via the debit network that costs them the least to accept.
