Amazon.com Inc.'s latest spat with Visa shows big retailers, armed with a growing array of payment options, are gaining the upper hand in their power struggle with card providers, but it's not a crisis for the payment company.
Amazon said last week that it would stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the United Kingdom from Jan. 19, 2022, saying that despite technology advancements the fees on such transactions remained high or in some cases were rising.
While Amazon may yet back down on the U.K. front, where the company accounts for less than 1% of Visa's credit card volume, according to an estimate by Piper Sandler analysts, the dispute is a bad sign for the card industry. Some analysts said it could presage a fight in the much bigger U.S. market.