@mark: 100% with you there...while it's not necessarily legally defensible, the "well everyone damn does it" moral argument is worthwhile and does get you out of a fair bit of troubles.
In healthcare this used to be the case (if everyone did it you were generally ok legally) until the Rogers v Whitaker case (1992) which established the idea of "material risk" (i.e. that argument doesn't apply if you can reasonably expect that person to attach significance to the risk/decision). Would be an interesting test to apply when talking about privacy disclosures/policies, but that's another kettle of fish. The question was more out of curiosity / interest as to "what the law says" than something that I would take action on...accepting cash or cash equivalents (direct deposit etc) is hard enough for $4k+ enterprise customers, let alone $13/mo subscriptions! And agreed Marco -- opens the slippery slope argument. Hugh On Thursday, 19 June 2014 21:17:31 UTC+10, Marco de Bruin wrote: > > Disclaimer: I am a software developer, so certainly do not belong to the > 'legal people'. > > My question here is why credit cards would be a different kind of third > party then say, direct debit (the bank is a commercial entity that charges > fees for using their services), PayPal (they even imply a fourth line: for > PayPal to work you need a third party product such as a credit card or bank > account). > > IMHO if this third line thingy applies strictly on online payment systems, > then ALL apps/websites are in breach unless they accept hard cash (coins > and notes) at their physical address. Paypal, EFTPOS, BPAY, bank > transfers, etc are just as much third party products as credit cards (and > all of them cost me, as customer, a fee directly or indirectly to > use/maintain). > > Marco > > Sent with ZeroMail <http://zeromail.com/?ref=4039>... > > On Thursday, June 19 2014 at 07:42 AM, Hugh Stephens < > [email protected] <javascript:>> wrote: > > Had a very interesting debate w @craigthomler (who I believe is on here > too) on the Twits about whether it's acceptable to only accept credit card > payments. > > Reference is to the third line forcing element of the trade practices act > (background http://www.australiancompetitionlaw.org/law/ed.html#tlf ). In > short, that you can't force someone to purchase/acquire a product from > another third party (in this case a credit card) as a condition of > providing a service. > > If it is restricted, seems to be opposite to this article from the RBA > > http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/legaltender.html > > which suggests that a business can be as selective as they want with > respect to what/how they will collect payments although it obviously has > the "not legal advice" disclaimer. > > Now IANAL (I am not a lawyer) and I'd be interested on any legal people > here's (general) legal opinion on it, but given that most SaaS startups > accept cc only unless large account / enterprise / yearly contract etc, > it's probably something that potentially impacts others here. > > Craig alluded to the fact that a number of companies have been prosecuted > under the trade practices act (third line forcing) for making people *have* > to use c/c. My admittedly brief googling couldn't find anything but finding > any ACCC decision is the old needle/haystack. > > Of course, then you start asking questions about whether by TPA you'd be > forced to accept cash payment from overseas customers etc, but maybe for > the sake of (my) sanity let's assume we're talking about Australian > registered businesses selling things (product/service/whatever) to > Australian customers.... > > Hugh > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] <javascript:> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] <javascript:> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Silicon Beach Australia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <javascript:>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. 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