Fees introduced in the past week by online mart bidding service LSL Auctions have been scrapped for mart clients.

It will now be free for mart clients to bid and view at the specific location where they are a client.

The previously announced fees will remain for those who are not a client of a mart that uses this online bidding service.

In correspondence to marts, seen by the Irish Farmers Journal, LSL CEO Brendan Hannigan said buyers and sellers at marts that use LSL’s service can continue to view and bid on the app for free at that location.

“LSL has amended the platform from 1 September 2024 to allow all existing clients of each mart (sellers and buyers) free access to view and bid at the mart where they are clients.

“This will ensure all clients of each mart (buyers and sellers) are not affected in any way by the introduction of the membership,” he said.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Hannigan confirmed the above changes had been made to the membership model announced in recent days.

“If viewers are specific clients of marts, they are not affected by this, but people who are not clients of marts would be paying to view.

“We know the number of people who subscribe to LSL and this is in discussion with the marts,” he added.

Previous changes

This is the second change to a fees structure announced in the last week by LSL.

On Thursday 15 August, LSL said it was to introduce a membership fee of €5 per month to ‘view only’ or a €10 per month charge to ‘bid and view’, commencing on 1 September 2024.

However, on Monday 19 August, LSL cut this to €5 per month to bid and view, with access to the LSL herd management app included.

For €10 per month, users can bid and view, as well as access on-demand replays and the herd management app.

Users can pay on a monthly basis or an annual payment of €50 or €100 for the respective memberships. These fees apply from 1 September 2024.

Costs

The mart bidding service - one of three in the country - said the fee has been introduced to offset increased running costs.

Up to now, LSL charged marts for the use of its online bidding platform, but from September 2024 non-mart client users of the app will have to also pay to use it.

The app is currently used by approximately 40 marts in the country.

Martbids, operated by the Irish Farmers Journal, and MartEye are the other two online bidding providers in the market.