Following its winning battle against ePAL in the Federal Court last week, Aldi has called for Australian banks to prove their net costs are increasing as a result of changes to the eftpos interchange fees.
Steven Bigg, ALDI managing director finance and administration said Alid believes the overall increase in net costs to the banking industry is minimal and is calling for greater transparency of any unjustified cost increase to retailers.
“Any investigation will show the banks will increase their revenue to the tune of tens of millions of dollars each year at the expense of retailers, if all the Major Banks adopt a similar stance to those banks that have already advised their retailers in writing as to the magnitude of the fee increase,” he said.
“We also see the potential for adverse effects on competition due to inconsistencies in how these charges are being applied to retailers, in what is already acknowledged as one of the most concentrated grocery retail sectors in the world.
“In light of the Federal Court’s judgement that consumers and retailers have been misled, we believe the decision to change the interchange fee structure should be further reviewed in an open and transparent manner, and the changes placed on hold until this review has taken place.”
Aldi said it has now made a decision to not place any surcharge on eftpos transactions in its stores.