Amazon, Visa agree truce in payment fees battle

Amazon and Visa have ended their battle over transaction fees, with the online retailer agreeing to accept payments via the credit card firm.

“We’ve recently reached a global agreement with Visa that allows all customers to continue using their Visa credit cards in our stores,” Amazon said on Wednesday.

Amazon last November said it would stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK because of high transaction fees.

The surcharge applied to the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon’s Australian and Singaporean sites will be lifted on Thursday, while Amazon has dropped its threat to block Visa payments on its UK store.

A Visa spokesman said the agreement included “a joint commitment to collaboration on new product and technology initiatives to ensure innovative payment experiences for our customers in the future”.

An EU-enforced cap on fees charged by card issuers is no longer in place in the UK following Brexit. Last month, British lawmakers said they planned to scrutinise increases in the fees Visa and Mastercard charge businesses after the country's payments regulator found no evidence to justify the rises.

Amazon has recently experimented with alternative payment methods for buying goods on its stores, including “buy now, pay later” facilities.

Tensions between the two companies increased last year as Amazon protested sharp increases to Visa’s online transactions fees when it began charging 1.5% of the transaction value for credit card payments made online between the UK and EU, and 1.15% for debit card transactions, up from 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.