Amazon.com has announced it plans to stop accepting Visa Inc credit cards issued in the United Kingdom from next year, due to the high fees charged by the payment processor for transactions.
"As a result of Visa's continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January, 2022," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Amazon customers can still use Visa debit cards, Mastercard and Amex credit cards, as well as Eurocard, the company said in a note to its customers.
Transaction Fees
Merchants have long disputed with payment processors over transaction fees. A Kroger unit in 2019 stopped accepting Visa's credit cards, citing excessive fees.
Visa did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment.
Amazon's plan to stop accepting UK-issued Visa credit cards was earlier reported by Bloomberg News.
Last year, the UK Supreme Court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that credit card companies Visa and Mastercard restricted competition in the way they set fees for retailers, opening the way for them to seek compensation.
European Payments Initiative
Earlier this week, a planned pan-European payments network backed by 22 banks to compete with Visa and Mastercard appealed for public money, saying its private backers were not prepared to stump up all the cash needed.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was launched last year and is seeking to get more banks and other players in payments on board by December to finalise plans to start rolling out its instant and card payments network.
"Public funding would be nice," EPI Chief Executive Martina Weimert told an event held by the European Payments Institutions Federation. "Let's not hide it - it's going to be a massive investment. It's expensive."
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