Page 23 of today’s Australian Financial Review reports about a threat of legal action against Bill Express by a group of newsagents organised through the NSW newsagents’ association. As I blogged last week, newsagent anger about Bill Express is not diminishing with time.
The legal move reportedly being taken by NANA is one of several legal fronts being pursued by groups of newsagents against Bill Express and other parties which may have played a role in getting newsagents to sign for the Bill Express service.
I understand that the ACCC is looking into the Bill Express situation as well as one or two state government authorities and another Federal authority. From what I understand, all are focused on who represented what and when to newsagents to get them to sign with Bill Express.
As newsagents trawl through their files, more are finding promotional material, articles and other documents on which they relied to sign up for Bill Express. In these documents, guarantees like the following on which I relied can be found:
Is the $210 Advertising rebate guaranteed?
Yes! The National Advertising Screen included in Package 3 includes a $210 rebate that is applied every month for the life of the agreement, as a guaranteed commitment.
This was promoted to me by Bill Express and by the Australian Newsagents’ Federation. Like many newsagents, I relied on this guarantee in making my decision.
While I am glad to see the AFR provide the Bill Express store more coverage today, I would like to see a newspaper undertake more complete reporting of the situation.
I would also like to see reporting of the current situation. Since February, the company has been unilaterally withholding around 30% of what would usually have been paid to newsagents for services rendered with the claim that the money would be used to promote the service. I have seen no evidence of any such promotion. I estimate that the company has in excess of $150,000 cash which would otherwise have been paid to newsagents but for the latest scheme the unilaterally imposed.
People wanting a summary of the Bill Express situation from a newsagent perspective ought to read by February 29 blog post.
I thought the AFR article was very poorly written, you almost feel sorry for poor BXP having to fight this ‘unwanted’ action.
2 more days of trading suspension.
At least we know now that someone has given them a bluey back for the ones they have been giving out. I will now be joining the class action with a cash donation to Nana.