Visa said it expects to resolve its disputes with Amazon in both the United Kingdom and the United States, according to separate reports quoting the company’s CEO and its chief financial officer (CFO).
In the previous days, Amazon had said it would stop accepting Visa credit cards in the U.K. and that it was considering ending its partnership with Visa on a co-branded card in the U.S.
“Clearly, we’re in a challenging negotiation,” Visa CEO Al Kelly told the Financial Times (FT), the media outlet reported Saturday (Nov. 20). “What’s different here is that Amazon unfortunately decided to take the negotiation challenges that we’re having public and oddly has chosen to threaten to punish consumers.”
In Singapore, Australia and now the U.K., Amazon has also offered its customers incentives to use payment methods other than Visa credit cards, the report added.
On Friday (Nov. 19), Reuters quoted Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu, saying, “We’ve resolved these things in the past and I believe we’ll resolve them in the future.”
Analysts have suggested that these are negotiating tactics on the part of Amazon, noting that other retailers have settled with Visa after threatening to stop accepting its credit cards, according to the Reuters report.
On Wednesday (Nov. 17), Amazon said it was considering dropping Visa as a partner for its Amazon Prime Rewards credit card, just two days after announcing it would stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. The eCommerce giant was considering operating its Prime credit card with American Express or Mastercard instead.
Read more: Amazon Eyes Dropping Visa on Co-Branded US Card
Interchange fees have been an ongoing dispute between retailers and payment networks.
See more: Visa-Amazon UK Spat Puts Interchange Rates Back in the Spotlight
In this case, Amazon has been chipping away at Visa’s presence across its platform.
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