Amazon and Visa reach global truce on card fees
Amazon and Visa have announced that they have come to an agreement over the issue of card fees.
The feud over card fees gathered pace in 2018, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of Sainsbury over the card giants. The court found that the card giant’s payment scheme was unlawful and MIFs should be set at zero.
Back in November 2021, the online shopping giant, Amazon stunned the industry when it unilaterally announced that it would stop accepting Visa credit cards from January 2022 citing over high fees charged by Visa but later it reversed its decision upon getting into an agreement with Visa.
The dispute between Amazon and Visa, has highlighted the tactic of merchants imposing surcharges on consumers in order to use credit cards. Such surcharges avoid the need for merchants to increase prices for all consumers. Under this new agreement between the two companies, the customers in Australia and Singapore shopping on Amazon will no longer have to pay a surcharge fee for using a Visa credit card.
In an email response to Commercial Payments International, an Amazon spokesperson noted that, “We’ve recently reached a global agreement with Visa that allows all customers to continue using their Visa credit cards in our stores. Amazon remains committed to offering customers a payment experience that is convenient and offers choice.”
While on the other side, Visa stated, “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 to ensure innovative payment experiences for our customers in the future.”
Both of the spokespeople declined to comment on the details of the agreement and over the question asked about sharing of MIFs between the two companies.