Robert Besser
19 Jan 2022, 23:09 GMT+10
LONDON, England: In a statement on January 17, Amazon UK said it has canceled plans to stop accepting Visa credit cards beginning 19th January, saying the change "will no longer take place."
"We are working closely with Visa on a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk," said an Amazon spokesperson, as reported by CNBC.
In November, Amazon announced the ban on accepting VISA cards, citing "high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions."
In 2021 Amazon also announced plans to introduce a 0.5 percent surcharge on Visa credit cards in Australia and Singapore.
In response, Visa had said it was "very disappointed" and would work to find a resolution with Amazon.
A Visa spokesperson told CNBC by email, "Amazon customers can continue to use Visa cards on Amazon.co.uk after 19th January, while we work closely together to reach an agreement."
After Brexit, Visa and rival Mastercard hiked their UK interchange fees, as a European Union cap on interchange fees ceased to apply in the country.
While both Amazon and Visa claim the dispute is not related to Brexit, the move was interpreted by experts as a way for Amazon to obtain bargaining power over Visa to lower its fees.
David Ritter, a financial services strategist at IT firm CI&T, said Amazon's move "comes as no surprise" and would have proven difficult as many customers' Visa credit cards are tied to Amazon's own Prime subscription service, as well as to digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, according to CNBC.
Other companies have complained about the high interchange fees charged by major card networks, with another notable example being grocery chain Kroger's, which temporarily banned Visa credit cards at some of its stores.
Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard are facing growing pressure from financial technology start-ups, such as Klarna and Afterpay, which offer "buy now, pay later" services that enable shoppers to split the cost of their purchases over monthly installments.
Get a daily dose of Greek Herald news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Greek Herald.
More InformationMOLINE, Illinois: After missing Wall Street revenue targets, Deere and Co. said it was having difficulty securing parts for its ...
HANOI, Vietnam: Vietnam's government announced that it has removed Le Hai Tra, general director of the Ho Chi Minh Stock ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Tech firms have slowed or frozen hiring, and even accelerated layoffs, in response to the ...
MOSCOW, Russia: McDonald's has announced that it will sell all its branches in Russia to one of its local licensees, ...
NEW DELHI, India: Skyroot, India's first privately held company to design, build and test a solid rocket propulsion system, successfully ...
DUBLIN, Ireland: In a message sent to the international high tech community, Ireland's state planning watchdog has ordered the South ...
New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): Weeks after the Central government banned wheat exports to control price rise, the Centre ...
Kabul [Afghanistan], May 26 (ANI): The Taliban have signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates on operating airports in ...
ATHENS - Greece will send Iranian oil from a seized Russian-flagged tanker to the United States at the request of ...
Washington - The United States' top negotiator for Iran nuclear talks made the case to lawmakers Wednesday for sticking with ...
Paul Blackburn allowed only one hit in 5 1/3 scoreless innings as the Oakland Athletics escaped the American League West ...
ANKARA, Turkey - A senior Turkish official insisted after talks with Swedish and Finnish officials Wednesday that Turkey would not ...