eBay will no longer accept American Express cards over ‘unacceptably high’ fees

eBay will no longer accept American Express payments starting August 17th, the company announced on Wednesday. It blames the change on the “unacceptably high fees” for Amex credit card transactions.

“Credit card transaction fees continue to rise unabated because of a lack of meaningful competition,” eBay writes in a notice to customers. “There is a need for more robust regulations to drive greater competition to credit card networks and help reduce transaction processing costs.” eBay still accepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and other payment methods, like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo.

Amex disagrees with eBay’s move, stating on its website that its fees are similar to other cards accepted by eBay. “We find eBay’s decision to drop American Express as a payment choice for consumers to be inconsistent with their stated desire to increase competition at the point of sale,” the company writes. It says eBay represents less than 0.2 percent of its total network volume.

We’ve seen other disputes among retailers and credit card companies unfold in the past, with Amazon nearly dropping support for Visa in the UK in 2022.