WMT Walmart Inc

By Sarah Nassauer and Robin Sidel 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will resume accepting Visa cards in its Canadian stores in the wake of a dispute over credit-card fee terms, the two companies said Thursday.

Wal-Mart banned Visa cards from 19 stores in remote areas of Canada, arguing that the fees it pays when shoppers use the cards were too high. The ban began in July at three stores in Thunder Bay, a town of 120,000 at the northwest corner of Lake Superior, then expanded the ban to 16 stores in Manitoba in October. Wal-Mart has 408 stores in Canada.

The ban was an unusual, consumer-facing action by Wal-Mart in a long-simmering battle between the retail giant and credit-card companies over the fees retailers pay when shoppers swipe a card.

Wal-Mart and Visa declined to share details of the agreement, though Randy Hargrove, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said "we continue to believe the fees charged by Visa and other credit-card companies are too high."

Visa declined to comment on how its customers responded to Wal-Mart's move. The card network launched a marketing effort to counter the Wal-Mart action, offering gift cards to affected Wal-Mart customers if they used their Visa cards in other stores.

During the card ban, most customers used other forms of payment, Mr. Hargrove said.

Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com and Robin Sidel at robin.sidel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 05, 2017 19:20 ET (00:20 GMT)

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