Visa, Walmart settle fee feud
Retailer allows credit card use
Walmart and Visa have ended an acrimonious and public battle over fees that saw the retail giant refuse to accept Visa credit cards in its northern Ontario and Manitoba stores.
In a brief statement Thursday, Walmart said it would allow customers in those regions to once again use Visa cards beginning Friday.
“We have come to an agreement with Visa which allows us to continue offering Visa as a form of payment in our stores,” Alex Roberton, senior director of corporate affairs at Walmart, said in the emailed statement.
Carla Hindman, a spokesperson for Visa, confirmed that Visa cards will be accepted “as a form of payment in all Walmart stores across Canada” as of Friday.
Neither side would provide details of their deal, with both citing confidential business terms.
The fight, which emerged in June, stemmed from a re-negotiation over how much Walmart would pay in interchange fees. These fees are collected from all merchants that accept credit cards as a method of payment, and are shared among credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard, the banks that issue the credit cards, and credit card processors.
After a surprise weekend announcement by Walmart last summer that it would begin phasing out acceptance of Visa cards in its Canadian stores, Visa accused the retailing behemoth of using its own customers as “leverage” in an attempt to pay lower fees than others, including charities and schools.
In an open letter to cardholders and other merchants published in June, including in the National Post, Visa said the pair had been negotiating for months, with Walmart ultimately offered “one of the lowest rates of any merchant” in Canada.
For its part, Walmart said it was trying to keep fees and all its costs as low as possible to avoid passing them along to customers through higher prices.
Interchange fees have come under increasing scrutiny around the world in recent years amid complaints from retail and consumer groups, and even some politicians, who fear they ultimately drive up the cost of goods for consumers.
On Thursday, officials from both Walmart and Visa declined to say where the two sides landed on the interchange fees in their latest agreement. “Visa doesn’t disclose confidential business terms,” Hindman said.