Bulletins

Amazon won't accept Visa credit cards in the UK

The battle between the two companies will affect British consumers starting in mid-January, not long after the holidays.

Visa's Foster City offices

Amazon blames Visa's high credit-card transaction fees for the change.

Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Amazon said it would stop accepting Visa credit cards issues in the U.K. starting Jan. 19, 2022. The company blamed Visa's high credit-card transaction fees for the change.

"The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers," an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch. "These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise."

Consumers will have to switch to a Visa debit card or a credit card operating on the Mastercard, American Express or Eurocard networks post-January. A Visa spokesperson told TechCrunch it was disappointed "Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future" and "when consumer choice is limited, nobody wins." The credit card company said it's working toward reaching an agreement with Amazon to roll back the change.

Amazon responded to confused consumers on Twitter on Wednesday, some of who expressed annoyance and pinned the change on Brexit. Previously, European Union law capped Visa's transaction fees between the U.K. and the EU at 0.3%. When the U.K. left the EU, Visa was able to increase the fee to 1.5%. Mastercard did the same. Both Amazon and Visa told the BBC the fee changes had nothing to do with Brexit.

Amazon has antagonized Visa for a while now. The company announced a surcharge for Visa credit card transactions in Singapore in September, and in Australia after that.

Other retailers have sparred with credit card networks as well. Walmart sued Visa over card fees in 2014 and blocked Visa from some of its Canadian stores in 2016.

Lizzy Lawrence

Lizzy Lawrence ( @LizzyLaw_) is a reporter at Protocol, covering tools and productivity in the workplace. She's a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied sociology and international studies. She served as editor in chief of The Michigan Daily, her school's independent newspaper. She's based in D.C., and can be reached at llawrence@protocol.com.

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Bulletins