A little known
court injunction which has protected auction house William Inglis from competition in the
key New South Wales and Victorian markets for the past 10 years, is due to be lifted on
the 24th of May this year. The effect of its lifting
will be to make it much easier for rival sales companies such as Magic Millions, to run
sales in both states after that date.
The original injunction was made nearly 10 years ago by the
New South Wales Supreme Court, to prevent what was then Wrightson Bloodstock in New
Zealand, from supplying pedigrees for auction sales in New South Wales or Victoria. It has
carried on to restrain Wrightson's successor companies, New Zealand Bloodstock and Arion
Pedigrees, its cataloging offshoot.
The basis of the injunction has its roots in a tripartite
arrangement made in the 1980's between Inglis, Wrightsons and Melbourne based Bloodstock
Computer Services, run by Tim and Brian Kelly. Under the arrangement, BCS would create an
accurate computer database of all pedigrees for Australia and New Zealand. In return for
funding the project, Inglis, Wrightson and BCS would each acquire the right to use the
database in its own exclusive territory. New South Wales, New Zealand and Victoria were
set aside in this way, with each of the parties free to supply pedigrees outside of these
areas.
To further complicate matters, Victorian based Dalgety
Bloodstock also had a pedigree database, which it used to supply its own needs in Victoria
and priced aggressively to supply bloodstock sales companies in other states such as ABCOS
in South Australia.
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