Wal-Mart and Visa Agree on Terms in Dispute Over Canadian Stores
January 05 2017 - 7:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Nassauer and Robin Sidel
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will resume accepting Visa cards in its
Canadian stores in the wake of a dispute over credit-card fee
terms, the two companies said Thursday.
Wal-Mart banned Visa cards from 19 stores in remote areas of
Canada, arguing that the fees it pays when shoppers use the cards
were too high. The ban began in July at three stores in Thunder
Bay, a town of 120,000 at the northwest corner of Lake Superior,
then expanded the ban to 16 stores in Manitoba in October. Wal-Mart
has 408 stores in Canada.
The ban was an unusual, consumer-facing action by Wal-Mart in a
long-simmering battle between the retail giant and credit-card
companies over the fees retailers pay when shoppers swipe a
card.
Wal-Mart and Visa declined to share details of the agreement,
though Randy Hargrove, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said "we continue to
believe the fees charged by Visa and other credit-card companies
are too high."
Visa declined to comment on how its customers responded to
Wal-Mart's move. The card network launched a marketing effort to
counter the Wal-Mart action, offering gift cards to affected
Wal-Mart customers if they used their Visa cards in other
stores.
During the card ban, most customers used other forms of payment,
Mr. Hargrove said.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com and Robin
Sidel at robin.sidel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 05, 2017 19:20 ET (00:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024