Jones v American Express Australia Limited [2019] NSWCATAP 30

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Jones v American Express Australia Limited [2019] NSWCATAP 30 Hearing dates: 6 November 2018 Date of orders: 25 January 2019 Decision date: 25 January 2019 Jurisdiction: Appeal Panel Before: A P Coleman SC, Senior Member A Suthers, Principal Member Decision: The appeal is dismissed Catchwords: Appeal – procedural fairness – Tribunal received unsworn evidence Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW) Cases Cited: John Prendergast & Vanessa Prendergast v Western Murray Irrigation Ltd [2014] NSWCATAP 69 Collins v Urban [2014] NSWCATAP 17 Pholi v Wearne [2014] NSWCATAP 78 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Richard Jones American Express Australia Limited File Number(s): AP18/34979 Publication restriction: Nil Decision under appeal Court or tribunal: NCAT Jurisdiction: Consumer and Commercial Division Citation: Nil Date of Decision: 02 August 2018 Before: G Bassett, Member File Number(s): GEN 18/19313

REASONS FOR DECISION 1. This is an internal appeal from a decision of the Consumer and Commercial Division of the Tribunal. It relates to a dispute between Mr Jones and American Express Australia Limited ("Amex"), wherein Amex has refused to allocate Qantas bonus reward points (the Points) to Mr Jones, upon his taking up a new card account. 2. Mr Jones says the nature of his contract with Amex entitled him to the Points and that Amex represented to him that he was eligible for the bonus points offer. Amex says Mr Jones is ineligible for the Points, due to an exclusion clause in the contract it has with Mr Jones. It denies the alleged representation. 3. The exclusion Amex relies upon to assert that Mr Jones is ineligible for the Points is that he held another account with it within 18 months prior to taking up the new account. The terms of the offer therefore made him ineligible for the reward points, which were part of a promotion for new customers. 4. Mr Jones says it was a company, of which he is the managing director, which previously held the account with Amex. He notes that the Company is a separate legal entity to him and says he is not precluded from receiving the Points on that basis. 5. On 2 August 2018, the Tribunal found for Amex and dismissed Mr Jones' claim. 6. From that decision, Mr Jones appeals. For the reasons below, we have dismissed the appeal.