Retail giant Walmart has a problem with Visa that it thinks can’t be settled out of court, so it’s suing the company because it’s not happy about the fact that Visa still lets customers sign for their purchases even if they’re made via debit cards that have chips in them. Walmart has filed a lawsuit against Visa in New York hoping to force the company to make PIN verification mandatory when customers pay using Visa cards in its stores.
Walmart argues in its lawsuit that since PINs happen to be a lot more secure than signatures, they are instrumental in preventing fraud, and while Walmart only allowed debit card payments if verified by PINs initially, Visa eventually forced it to accept signature verifications as well.
The Wall Street Journal reports that debit cards are the most common form of plastic payment used at the retail giant’s stores. It’s going to be in the interest of many people if card payments are made more secure because giant retail corporations are routinely hit with card breaches.
Randy Hargrove, a spokesperson for Walmart, says that the company is of the view that Visa’s position on the matter “creates unacceptable risk to customers,” also alleging that its actions and rules are inconsistent with federal law. It’s not like the retail is doing all of this out of the goodness of its heart considering the fact that it does have to pay an additional five cents for every signature transaction.