Creditnet News Story
Visa acts against data-pass practices
Thursday, April 29, 2010
By William Davis
Merchants that want to pass data along to third parties for additional purchases will have to get permission from Visa cardholders.
Visa has taken steps to help its cardholders avoid unwanted charges through online transactions.
The company announced it will require online retailers to get a person's permission before sharing consumer information with third-party merchants. The measure is in response to the practice of third parties offering consumers discounts for a purchase without the buyer being aware they are coming from another source.
"Consumers who shop online using their Visa cards should be confident that they will only be charged for the products and services they legitimately intend to purchase - not those that are foisted on them through deceptive data pass schemes," said Martin Elliott, senior business leader with Visa.
To help avoid data pass schemes, retailers will have to ask consumers to resupply their credit card information in order to accept an offer from an outside source. Doing so should be a sign to consumers that a second - and perhaps unwanted - purchase is about to be made.
Other web merchants have been criticized for having offer boxes automatically clicked as a default setting, which could lead consumers to purchase goods or service they don't want.
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