Service restrictions on eBay: No payment with American Express

Ebay customers must prepare for a significant restriction from August 17th. The online marketplace is switching off payment with American Express. This means that around three million German cardholders will have to resort to another credit card.

The background is a bizarre dispute between the corporations: eBay accuses Amex of charging too high fees. The dispute is therefore explosive: American Express wants to catch up with the two market leaders Mastercard and Visa, but is still struggling with the problem of a smaller number of acceptance points and Customers.

Their advertising campaign is designed to say: With Amex you can go almost anywhere pay. By kicking out the user, eBay is taking revenge for high demands.

An Amex spokesperson told BILD: “We are disappointed with eBay's decision to stop accepting American Express cards as of August 17. Our research has shown that the cost of accepting American Express in the US is comparable to what eBay pays for similar cards on other networks. However, eBay accounts for less than 0.2 percent of our total network volume.”

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However, it is known in merchant forums that Amex charges more from merchants than its powerful competitors. Exact commission rates depend on the contracts with the Payment service providers In general, however, it can be said that some providers charge 1.19 percent for Mastercard and Visa. For American Express cards in particular, the fee for merchants is around 1.9 percent.

In order not to deter small businesses, Amex is offering special conditions: the service fee is “only” 1.5 percent for American Express card turnover of up to 100,000 euros. Which fees Amex remained silent to BILD about the additional charges that may be due to small retailers beyond this amount.