Amazon Halts Plans to Block Visa Credit Cards Amid Talks.
Amazon has dropped plans to block UK Visa credit card payments this week, as the two sides continue to try to resolve a dispute over payment fees. “The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19,” Amazon said.
Visa said it was “working closely to reach an agreement”.
Amazon said last year that Visa payment costs were “an obstacle” to providing the best prices for customers.
Visa accused Amazon of threatening to restrict consumer choice. “When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins,” Visa said.
Neither company has indicated when the talks might conclude. In an email to customers on Monday, Amazon said it was working closely with Visa on “a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk”.
An EU-enforced cap on fees charged by card issuers is no longer in place in the UK following Brexit. Both Visa and its rival Mastercard have raised the so-called interchange fee on cross-border transactions between businesses in the UK and the European Union following Brexit.
However, Amazon and Visa said last year that their dispute had nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU.
Amazon has previously declined to say how much Visa charges the retailer to process transactions made on credit cards.
Visa also declined to comment, though it claimed that on average it takes less than 0.1% of the value of a purchase. The Payment Systems Regulator has raised concerns about competition in this sector, which is dominated by Visa and Mastercard.
In a strategy published last week, it said one of its priorities was to promote competition between UK payment systems.
“We will focus more on improving competition between payment systems, not just competition within payment systems,” its managing director Chris Hemsley said. “This is important because we know that the future of retail payments is becoming increasingly about digital payments, most of which are currently made using card payment systems.”