Following the ruling of the Supreme Court that forces all businesses in Chile to accept prepaid cards without applying surcharges, Walmart Chile expressed its concern and warned of possible anti-competitive effects of this measure.
The judicial decision, which has an impact on promoting financial inclusion and seeks avoid discrimination in payment methods. On Friday night, the ruling was celebrated by Tenpo, Mercado Pago and the FinteChile association.
From Walmart Chile they indicated that they maintain a deep respect for the institutions and that they are studying the sentence, although they maintain that “The incorporation of the rules is striking honor all products and non surchargesince, from our point of view and in accordance with international experience, they are completely anti-competitive” and that could increase costs for businesses and, therefore, for consumers.
The new regulation prohibits differentiating between different types of cards and applying additional surchargesregardless of the nature of the payment method.
According to the supermarket, This would force businesses to “incorporate high-cost payment methods” and distribute this increased expense among all consumers.regardless of whether they pay in cash or with another cheaper means, such as debit cards.
Currently, maximum interchange rates – the main component of the fee paid when receiving card payments – are 0.50% for debit, 0.94% for prepaid and 1.14% for credit. Meanwhile, starting at the end of October they will be reduced to 0.35% for debit and 0.8% for prepaid and credit.
“This greater value, according to the same ruling, must be distributed among all consumers, regardless of whether they pay in cash or by another means of lower cost,” explained Walmart Chile.
In addition, the company emphasized its commitment to financial inclusion and its proposal to maintain low prices. “Unfortunately, this court ruling will make purchasing operations more expensive not only for our company, but for all businesses, strongly impacting all types of customers,” the firm said.
