Here’s the way out of the Amazon and Visa spat

Amazon’s quarrel with Visa is over the fees it has to pay. It has a point. The rate at which they’ve risen is scandalous, writes James Moore

Tech giant wavering somewhat but it still has the power to stare down the likes of Visa and Mastercard (AFP)

Was it Amazon or Visa that blinked first to – at least temporarily – end the pair’s stand-off which had looked set to result in holders of the latter’s credit cards being blocked from the site if they had no alternative means of payment?

On the face of it, it looks like Amazon. The internet giant started the fight. It set a Wednesday deadline for Visa to agree to lower charges, only to step back from the breach to allow talks between the pair to continue.

There is no replacement deadline, while Amazon has promised to give customers plenty of time should the pair’s negotiations break down. The next step? Probably a face-saving announcement of some sort of deal in a couple of weeks with very little in the way of detail but lots of gushing quotes from the two sides about “working together”.