Mobile payments cause suspicion among Canadian merchants

Businesses in Canada seem interested in the technology but are wary of the costs that will be involved.

The wireless industry in Canada is strengthening the push that it has been making to accelerate the adoption of mobile payments, but merchants are feeling frustrated and pressured as they anticipate higher fees.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has said that businesses are preparing to be hit with costs.

The organization, which represents over 109,000 small businesses in the country, said that mobile payments are primed to develop into the “next big fee palooza” for credit card companies, banks, payment processors, and wireless carriers. It has expressed that there has been a “breakdown of trust” between those providers and small businesses.

Small businesses are just waiting to see what higher processing fees and other premiums come with mobile payments.

The CFIB said that the lack of trust from small business toward those companies already exists and is coming from the premium credit card transaction processes that already involve higher processing fees in order to accept them. Now the organization says those companies are waiting to see what mobile payments will have up its sleeves.

The CFIB has said that it is seeking an “express consent” requirement. This would mean that merchants would not have to accept transactions over smartphones and tablets just because they have signed up for the programs to accept contactless credit card transactions.

Canadians have already been using the Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass contactless terminals in order to make small purchases. Those are the same devices that could be used to accept mobile payments through NFC technology and the CFIB is concerned that the industry will soon be implementing new fees with the use of those devices for accepting smartphone transactions. This would make it difficult for small businesses to remove that option later on if they already have the devices for the contactless card transactions.

On the other hand, banks and wireless providers have stated that they do not have any intention to implement new fees for mobile payments but are concerned that a provision for express consent would slow down merchant adoption of the transaction option.