News

Online livestock trading platforms box on over business name

Jon Condon January 29, 2025

A LEGAL stoush between two online livestock marketing platforms over the use of a business name has spilled over into a second year.

AuctionsPlus is in dispute with newcomer, On The Box, over the second company’s business name.

On The Box was launched in December 2023 by a group including former AuctionsPlus staff, determined to provide competition in the digital livestock marketing space.

AuctionsPlus itself had used a similar term, ‘What’s on the Box?’ for a lengthy period in newsletter engagement with stakeholders, before apparently discontinuing it last year.

On The Box maintained the specific term was already in wide community use.

“We have always wanted to put vendors, agents and buyers first in everything we do, however one area which has taken up more time and money than we thought are the ongoing disputes over our name,” On The Box chief executive Greg Szudrich said in a statement.

“While we didn’t expect AuctionsPlus to welcome us, we’ve been surprised by their reaction and the current legal dispute over our name,” he said.

On The Box had had multiple legal challenges from AuctionsPlus since its launch, Mr Szudrich said.

“Our lawyers believe these are more about hindering our business than legitimate legal concerns. The challenges do not appear to be in good faith,” he said.

“It’s understandable that they would want to protect their business interests, but we believe this situation could have been handled differently.”

“When we started, our focus was on the website and pricing, before we even thought about a name. When that time came we wanted a name that people could recognise and was not trademarked or being used actively,” Mr Szudrich said.

“Before we did anything we searched all trademarks and it was not registered, even though they (AuctionsPlus) hold several other trademarks.”

Mr Szudrich said his company had been open to settlement discussions, “but the proposals so far wouldn’t cover even basic rebranding costs.”

It’s understandable to see them use discounts or rebates aimed at retaining listings that may have come our way —it benefits agents and vendors, which is ultimately positive for the industry. That said, we believe that the competition should prioritise agents, vendors and buyers over legal conflict.

“On The Box is more than a name to us; it is a website built for the industry who deserve more options. It is just a shame that we can not completely focus on that at the moment.”

Wynand Snyman

AuctionsPlus chief executive officer Wynand Snyman was reluctant to go into detail in a complex legal case that was still in progress, but stridently denied that AuctionsPlus had mounted the action to damage the On The Box business.

“To suggest we are trying to distract them or shut them down is absolutely not the case,” he told Beef Central. “To suggest that that is our purpose in pursuing this matter is something we absolutely deny. There’s a lot of competition in our industry – Facebook Marketplace, Auction Exchange, Bids Online, among others – and none of this is about shutting down a competitor. Otherwise we’d be out there fighting everyone.”

“We see this as airing dirty laundry, designed as clickbait to attract attention,” he said.

“Talking about bits and pieces in this matter without the full context is not helpful,” Mr Snyman said.

“Competition is healthy, because it makes all of us sharper, and its good for the broader industry.”

“Nobody wants the dreary agent in town. We want a bunch of red-hot people who pull each other up to a higher level, for the benefit of the industry.”

He hoped the matter would be resolved soon.

“We’re following the right procedures and steps to make that happen,” he said.

AuctionsPlus dominates the online livestock marketing space in Australia, accounting for almost 900,000 cattle and 4.6 million lambs in a record 2022 year.

 

 

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