Amazon reaches deal to continue accepting Visa payments worldwide
It marks the end of a payment dispute that started brewing last year.
Amazon and Visa have resolved their simmering dispute over payment fees in the UK and elsewhere, Reuters has reported. "We've recently reached a global agreement with Visa that allows all customers to continue using their Visa credit cards in our stores," a spokesperson told Reuters.
Amazon threatened to stop accepting Visa in the UK starting January 19th, citing the high fees it charges for credit card transactions. The rest of Europe wasn't impacted as the EU has a cap on card issuer fees, but both Mastercard and Visa card issuers jacked fees in the UK following Brexit. UK regulators recently announced that they'd investigate those increases.
It seemed likely that Amazon wouldn't carry out its threat, given Visa's dominance in the payment market. Sure enough, shortly before that deadline, Amazon announced it would continue accepting the cards after all and said it was "closely working with Visa on a potential solution."
Amazon didn't ban or threaten to ban Visa cards anywhere else, but it has been charging an additional transaction fee for Visa-using customers in Australia and Singapore. That charge has now been revoked, and Visa and Amazon appear to have put the whole thing behind them. "This agreement includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites today, as well as a joint commitment to collaboration on new product and technology initiatives," a Visa spokesperson said in a statement.
