Acceptance: iZettle Compelled to Disrupt Visa Card Acceptance

• iZettle has been forced to stop accepting Visa card in Denmark, Finland and Norway as of 1st August, “based on a policy decision by Visa Europe”.

• The Swedish market is not being affected. In Finland, MasterCard and American Express cards are still accepted, as well as Diners Club cards in Denmark and Norway. The app is being tested on these three markets.

• Users have been informed by mail and the news has been relayed on Twitter. The start-up does not provide much information as to why Visa made this decision. It may be related to iZettle’s signature-based authentication system, instead of PINs.

Source: iZettle Blog

• Considering Visa’s prevailing position in Europe, this restriction could seriously impact iZettle’s obvious development efforts.

• iZettle was created in 2010 in Sweden. In November 2011, the service was made available to iOS users in its home country after successful pilot testing during the summer period. The start-up has been making several announcements these past weeks, asserting strong global expansion will. The solution started being tested in the UK last May (see May 2012 Insight).

• On 23 July, a beta version of its app for Android was launched in Sweden in partnership with Samsung. In June, it announced a 25 million euros fundraising, including MasterCard among its investors.