INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Amazon said it is considering dropping Visa as partner on its United States co-branded credit cardVisa expects to resolve its credit card
fee dispute with Amazon.com Inc in Britain and hopes to continue its co-branded credit card partnership with the e-commerce giant in the
United States, its Chief Financial Officer told Reuters.Amazon said on Wednesday that it would stop taking payments from Visa credit cards
in Britain from mid-January next year."We've resolved these things in the past and I believe we'll resolve them in the future," Vasant
Prabhu said in an interview on Friday, adding: "It is our expectation that there will be a resolution so that UK consumers are not
The shares then gave back those gains and were last trading down 1.4 per cent.Amazon said in its Wednesday statement that credit card
charges should be "going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise."Analysts have
suggested its stance may be a negotiating tactic
In the past, other big retailers have settled fee disputes with Visa after announcing they were going to quit taking its credit cards in
narrow segments of their businesses.Walmart Inc's unit in Canada, for example, said in 2016 it would stop accepting Visa credit cards
after being unable to reach an agreement on fees
Seven months later the companies said they had settled the matter.Prabhu said reports on Wednesday suggesting the dispute was the result of
an EU-enforced cap on fees no longer applying in the UK after Brexit were "entirely inaccurate."That rule applied to cross-border
transactions between the EU and UK, whereas the dispute relates to domestic transactions, he said.In recent months, Amazon has also
introduced surcharges on customers using Visa credit cards in Singapore and Australia, citing high fees, as the relationship between the two
companies appeared to deteriorate.Some analysts had expressed concern Amazon's move in the UK could be a precursor to the retailer
dropping Visa's credit card in other territories, something Prabhu said he hoped would not materialize."Restricting consumer choice
doesn't help merchants either," said Prabhu
"If a merchant tells me I can't use my preferred card that is not helpful to me as a consumer."Amazon also said it is considering
Visa.Visa said it remains in discussions about continuing its partnership with Amazon and is hopeful that it will continue."We hope to get
to the point where our relationship with Amazon goes back to being what it was," Prabhu said.
