More Brexit fallout
Amazon will stop accepting payments from Visa credit cards issued in the UK from January 19th, 2022. Customers will still be able to use Visa debit cards issued in the UK, as well as credit cards issued by MasterCard, American Express, and other firms.
Amazon is blocking UK credit cards from Visa as part of an ongoing battle over “interchange” fees — levies charged by card issuers to a merchant’s bank for each transaction. Visa’s interchange fees for transactions between the UK and the European Union (where Amazon UK processes payments) were previously capped at 0.3 percent by EU law. But since the UK left the EU, Visa has been able to hike that fee to 1.5 percent.
It’s not clear why Visa is being singled out by Amazon
However, Visa isn’t the only company to make such a change. MasterCard made an identical increase to its interchange fees before Visa, but it hasn’t been blocked by Amazon. It’s not entirely clear why Visa has been singled out. It may simply be a strategic decision on Amazon’s part — to hurt one company instead of taking on an entire industry. Or there may be specific complications in Visa’s payment policies. For example, Bloomberg notes that the company has increased interchange fees for e-commerce sites, while reducing fees in other areas, like education and real estate purchases. It’s not clear if policies from MasterCard or other card issuers make similar distinctions.
In a statement from an Amazon, the company said:
While a spokesperson for Visa told BBC News:
