The ANF yesterday issued a media release publicly joining the fight against the EFTPOS fee changes. Click here to see a copy of the release. Thee release includes this quote from ANF CEO Alf Maccioni which goes to the heart of the matter:
This completely removes the previous level playing field for Australia’s thousands of small businesses including our community newsagents. Consumers and small business are the ones who will pay for this, the big banks will get increased profits and Coles and Woolworths will continue to receive a rebate and get a further leg up to increase their market advantage over struggling small businesses many of whom are still recovering from recent natural disasters.
The release also makes these clear and excellent points:
The ANF opposes these new charges that EPAL state are to support investment in the EFTPOS network and disputes any claim that retailers just need to negotiate with their bank to absorb these new fees. “The investment will end up being on the retailer side in necessary upgrades to point of sale equipment to integrate the changes, adding further cost. The banks are on either side of the deal so they will not absorb any of the new fees and newsagents do not have the bargaining power of the major retailers to demand it.” Maccioni said.
The highlighted section gets to the heart of the matter and the excuses being made by the banks that retailers will not suffer.
It would be good if newsagents could use their contacts with local newspapers to get coverage for this release. It is important for local retailers – a constituency which is important to local newspapers.
To see more covered on this blog about the EFTPOS fee issue, please click on the EFTPOS fees category on the right hand side.
Gee, What happens to all the Tatts Transactions which are paid for via Plastic?
Do we put a surcharge on the Tatts Ticket?
Suppliers to this industry need to join the fight!
Its just a blatent abuse of market power by the big supermarket chains. Enough is Enough!
Lets just hope the New replacement for Graham Samuals of the ACCC has the drive to put a set of dentures on that toothless dog of an ACCC!
I don’t want this to sound like I am defending Coles or Woolies. I thought I would explain what I believe to be the reasoning behind them not paying the fees that we will have to absorb.
Going back to my days with Coles Myer, which I left about 5 years ago, they spent millions of dollars on technology so that they could process EFTPOS payments through their own switch (not sure if debit or credit cards or both). This meant they transacted directly with individual banks to get their money, cutting out the transaction fees payable to their bank. I don’t know about Woolworths but I assume they have something similar.
This technology is something that is not feasible for individual small businesses such as newsagents.
We all must act NOW!
There is a pro-forma letter on the ANF website (anf.net.au) ready to be sent to your Federal MP.
If we don’t push this issue to the limit we will have no-one else to blame but ourselves.
DO IT TODAY!
Lance I also posted the link to the ANF letter here. http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2011/03/18/how-you-can-help-fight-on-the-eftpos-issue.html
My local papaer is coming out Wednesday to write a story for us all on the issue
Thanks, Mark
Lance