DC Payments, the largest independent supplier of automatic teller machines in Australia, insists it is "not a monopoly or oligopoly supplier" and "nor does it have substantial market power that enables it to dictate unfavourable terms and conditions."DC Payments is defending itself, at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, from an attempt by the Australian Hotels Association to get authorisation for a "possible" boycott of DC Payments, proposed to last for as long as five years. Many hotels use DC as supplier of ATMs. The AHA represents around 5000 businesses.US ATM giant Cardtronics is the new owner of DC Payments.?One ambit employed by DC is to persuade the ACCC to perceive the market as broader than ATMs, but including "alternative methods of obtaining access to cash and payment technologies," Eftpos prominent among them."DC Payments faces significant competition both from other independent ATM deployers and ATMs deployed by financial institutions, as well as alternative methods", Matthew Thomas, managing director of DC Payments, wrote in a submission to the ACCC.The AHA, in its application to the ACCC, said its hotel members "have had considerable angst in dealing with DC Payments, now made worse with the acquisition of Cashcard [in late 2016]."The association said there were "lengthy periods of delays … supplying services" from Cardtronics/DC, described as a "large monopoly or oligopoly supplier" that exercised "substantial power, able to dictate unfavourable terms and conditions."Thomas told the ACCC "DC Payments rejects the suggestion that it has exerted or is placing 'extreme' pressure on Cashcard merchants."He did concede one detail."As at the time of the acquisition [of Cashcard from First Data], the vast majority of Cashcard's ATMs did not comply with the 'EMV' (Europay, Mastercard, VISA) hardware and software requirements."DC Payments, Thomas said, "has made a significant capital investment to purchase EMV compliant ATMs and ATM upgrade kits, to enable the upgrade of non-EMV compliant Cashcard ATMs."He pointed out that DC Payments "has sought to renew contracts with Cashcard customers as expeditiously as possible, given that approximately 46 per cent of the Cashcard contracts acquired by DC Payments were due to expire in 12 months."Linking back to the EMV matter, Thomas said "DC Payments sought to ensure the investment it was making in EMV compliant hardware and software for Cashcard ATMs was being utilised appropriately."