Walmart Canada will stop accepting Visa Inc V.N cards at its 16 stores in the province of Manitoba starting on October 24, a spokesman said on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a high-profile fee dispute.
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The news comes after the retailer in July stopped accepting Visa as a payment option in three Thunder Bay, Ontario locations amid a dispute over what the retailer calls “unacceptably high fees”. At the time, Wal-Mart said that it planned to roll out the program across Canada if the two companies couldn’t reach an agreement on fees.
“We’re committed to continuing negotiations with Visa, and we are still hopeful to reach an agreement”.
The negotiations do not affect the USA stores of parent Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT.N . The retailer has seven stores in Winnipeg, which is the capital of Manitoba. Wal-Mart’s Canadian unit has threatened to expel Visa from all 406 of its stores nationwide unless the network agrees to lower the amount it charges for credit-card transactions.
“Walmart’s decision to further limit Visa acceptance in Manitoba is disappointing”, Visa spokeswoman Carla Hindman said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. Wal-Mart has more than 400 stores in Canada and almost 12,000 globally. “Customers have adjusted their payment methods accordingly”, he said.
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Back in June Walmart announced it would stop accepting Visa at more than 400 Canadians stores, saying it pays more than $100 million for customers using credit cards.
