This is what smells:
You would like to set up an exhibit stand? No worries, that will be $1000 (or whatever it is).
Oh, you sell EFB software? Well, just for you the price just went up to $30,000. Cough up or don't come.
This is the bit that the Trade Practices Act would likely have an issue with. Not to mention a fair go.
Was this directly aimed at excluding AvPlan? I don't know, but if I was launching an EFB startup and hoping to exhibit would I be excluded too? How on earth could I be expected to cough up $30,000?
There's effective marketing and healthy competition and uncompetitive/unethical behaviour. There is a line in the sand in there somewhere, and a significant portion of observers seem to be of the opinion that it was crossed, hence the social media backlash. AvPlan didn't manufacture the backlash.
OzRunways must have subsequently felt embarrassed about that so they withdrew as damage control. I don't have an issue with OzRunways, they are not big enough to have a professional
PR team who might have predicted such a social backlash. I also don't have an issue with AvPlan for merely pointing out on their website why they were refused attendance. The rest of the news has come from the public, you and me.
I hope it doesn't happen again, and that the show can somehow go on.
Edit: This is a guess, but AvPlan's comment that they never received a formal request indicates that the $30,000 price theorised above was not even offered as part of their rejection notice. It was just "No." So after politely declining initial verbal sponsorship invitations, the next thing they knew was that they were refused attendance. I'd be miffed too.
Disclaimer: I use Jeppesen
I have friends who use OzRunways and I have friends who use AvPlan. They both seem to be good products.