On 22 July, the Federal Court issued a ‘claim registration and opt out notice’ to likely ‘Group Members’ in the Tyro Class Action.
A Class Action lawsuit was first brought by Bannister Law, acting on behalf of Spozac Pty Limited, in October of last year following an outage in Tyro’s EFTPOS facility in January 2021.
Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke has previously apologised for the outage, which left thousands of businesses unable to take card payments. In some cases, this outage lasted weeks. Tyro have put the disruption down to a fault in the software provided by the terminal manufacturer, Worldline, in certain models of their POS payment machines.
The Federal Court’s notice outlined three courses of action for likely Group Members:
- Registering and remaining a Group Member.
- Doing nothing and remaining a Group Member.
- Opting out and ceasing to be a Group Member.
The first option would mean that Group Members will have their claim considered by the court and would receive a share of any settlement resulting from the Class Action.
In the second instance, unregistered Group Members would be ‘bound by any judgment or settlement,’ however, registered parties will seek an order ‘which, if made, will have the effect of precluding [unregistered Group Members] from seeking any benefit from that settlement.’ Essentially this means that unregistered Group Members would not be entitled to any settlement monies, if this order is granted.
With the third option, any Group Members that opt-out will lose their right to any compensation from this Class Action – but will not be bound by its judgment or settlement and are free to take their own action against Tyro, or participate in Tyro’s own ‘Remediation Program’.
The Shout approached Tyro for comment regarding this program, with a spokesperson saying: “Following the terminal connectivity incident experienced in January 2021, Tyro has conducted a remediation program whereby all impacted merchants have been contacted directly by Tyro and given the opportunity to claim any financial losses caused by the connectivity incident.”
The court notice added detail regarding Tyro’s remediation.
‘Tyro’s position is that any Group Member who has entered into a settlement agreement with Tyro under its Remediation Program or enters into a settlement agreement is not or will not be entitled to compensation in the Tyro Class Action or otherwise. Group Members who have already entered into a settlement agreement with Tyro may wish to obtain their own legal advice in relation to their rights.’
The court also noted that Group Members are not individually liable for the cost of bringing the Class Action, and legal costs would be distributed by the court in the instance of a successful action.
The notice also outlined the course of action possible Group Members should take.
‘If you are unsure whether or not you are a Group Member, you should email Bannister Law Class Actions at tyroclassaction@bl.com.au or call their office line ((02) 8231 6529) or seek your own legal advice without delay. Further information and a registration form can be found at www.tyroclassaction.com.au.’
Group Members who intend to remain in the Tyro Class Action must register their claim before 4pm Sydney time on October 30 2022.