The fight between merchants and the credit card industry continues as the Canadian government is mulling over a proposal, which could be announced as early as this week, to give retailers the ability to reject Apple Pay (and mobile payments in general—if and when they're available in the country), The Wall Street Journal reported today.
The source of the conflict stems from the potential for an increase in transaction processing fees that merchants could incur when accepting mobile payments. Though retailers currently pay the same transaction fee that is typically associated with physical card swipe, the fear is that card companies could raise fees in the future after mobile payments become more mainstream.
While the rules reportedly wouldn't keep credit card companies from increasing fees, the proposal would allow retailers to pick and choose which forms of payment they are willing to accept.
A quote from the drafted document, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, explains the thinking behind the proposal:
"Should fees set by the payment card networks in respect of contactless payments made from a mobile device increase relative to card-based contactless payments, payment card networks will develop the technical specifications to ensure that merchant acceptance of contactless payments made from a mobile device can be canceled at the point of sale without disabling other forms of contactless payments acceptance."
News of this proposal comes after recent reports that CVS and Rite Aid disabled mobile payments last month in favor of upcoming payment alternative, CurrentC.
Source: The Wall Street Journal