Internet Billing Company (iBill) has asked a New York court to force First Data Bank to live up to what iBill calls a prior agreement: namely, that First Data, which had been iBill's processing bank, would help iBill transition to another bank after a contract between iBill and First Data expired earlier this month.
"iBill brings this action to save its business from immediate collapse," according to a filing with the New York State Supreme Court. iBill also said in the filing that if First Data's move is allowed to stand, a number of iBill clients' businesses could be jeopardized if not ruined.
The court filing was made September 17, four days before DuoCash announced formally that they have a new joint marketing deal letting iBill merchants accept prepaid phone cards as a credit card alternative. DuoCash would be integrated into iBill systems within the next 60 days under the deal.
iBill filed to compel First Data to answer the complaint within 20 days of the complaint being served upon the bank, or within 30 days after the date if the summons isn't served directly to the bank in New York.
First Data, iBill charged in the filing, "made repeated assurances that they would extend the contract with iBill. Moreover, First Data confirmed these assurances in conversations with iBill when they reported to iBill that they would extend the contract upon receipt of a commitment letter from Merrick (Bank), which commitment letter Merrick presented to First Data on September 15, 2004."
The company further accused First Data of reneging on any orderly transition and announcing termination "imminently." IBill said it believed they would be helped to complete the transition to Merrick no later than November 15.
"Any such termination would be wrongful," the iBill filing continued. "Any termination by [First Bank] would result in immediate, irreparable harm to [iBill] and its customer base. Cancellation of its credit card support arrangements would effectively put [iBill's] customers out of business, depriving them of any ability to function."
Neither iBill itself nor First Data Bank representatives could be reached for comment before this story went to press.
"It's never good in any industry for a major player to fail, whether they're killed or whether they killed themselves," commented Epoch Systems chief executive Chris Mallick, whose company, like iBill, is one of the leading Internet Payment Service Providers for the adult industry. "There's never a positive spin to be put on that, there are only lessons to be learned. I don't think it's going to kill the industry, though it's certainly going to hurt some people. And it's not something we like to see. We don't take joy in seeing anyone fail."
Mallick said that if the court doesn't preserve a temporary restraining order, iBill would likely have no processing in the United States "and, according to their [court] documents, they'd be out of business in a few days."
He said that the agreement iBill claims to have had with First Data for a transition to a new processor may have been an oral agreement only, since if it had been writing that written agreement might have been attached to the court filing.
But Mallick added that, in a worst case scenario, an iBill collapse would not mean the collapse of the adult Internet's credit processing side.
Click here to read a .PDF file of the iBill court filing.
