Newsroom

June 30, 2016

Visa countersues Walmart over chip-and-PIN

Visa filed suit against Walmart on Wednesday, alleging Walmart secretly tested a system where no signature option was allowed with Visa debit cards.

The suit follows Walmart's suit against Visa filed in May that alleged Visa demanded signature verification for debit transactions because Visa could make more money processing those.

According to Reuters, Visa noticed a drop in debit card transactions after the store's "PIN-only policy" was secretly instituted and heard complaints from customers about not being able to use debit cards at Walmart without a PIN.

"Instead of complying with the terms of the commercial agreement that the two companies negotiated and agreed to in 2015, Walmart is attempting to avoid its obligation to provide a signature option for their customers when paying with a Visa debit card," Visa said in a statement.

Visa has said customers should be allowed to choose between signatures or PINs. Walmart argues that signature verification is more fraud-prone and that Visa only prefers it because of profits.