VISA U.S.A. rumor - AVS = HRIPSP

[Rolo]

The rumor has been going around that VISA U.S.A. want AVS to register as HRIPSP (High Risk Internet Payment Service Providers) and the sites using the AVS to register as Sponsored Merchants:

http://www.theadultwebmaster.com/news/0304..._visa_avs.phtml

[Almighty Colin]

Is this the start of the seasonal VISA panic? I need to know. I synchronize my watch to it.

[Rolo]

VISA is as corporate as it gets - without being a corporation... seams that every 6 months they release new rules

[sextoyking]

this visa/avs thing could be true. we have had 2 avs companies already come to us to change some designs for them, I think removing the AVS part.

[*KK*]

Originally posted by Colin@Apr 16 2003, 10:05 AM
Is this the start of the seasonal VISA panic? I need to know. I synchronize my watch to it.

But of course Colin, it's April... next will be November

My guess on this situation would go one of two ways...

1. Visa sees the AVS market as an unregulated set of aggregators -- and they may have a valid point here (not that it matters, they do what they want regardless of points or validity) -- whereby someone who's been terminated can slide back into the system and continue to make money off Visa sales, thereby subverting the spirit and the letter of their rules. If this is where they are going, then it's kind of a complex situation. The AVS could certainly hand over a list of the urls they are processing -- they have this handy from their submissions and approvals... but then who's going to pay for the company that does Visa compliance to surf all these thousands of urls and decide who stays and who goes? That's what the fees that Visa collect pay for in part.

2. Visa is out to nail someone specific and everyone else will be caught in the crossfire. If this is the case, then who knows what the best defense is... changing your name to something other than AVS might be a short term stopgap but don't you think that someone at Visa would catch on to that pretty quickly? Their compliance department is sometimes woefully lacking in understanding of the internet from what I've seen, but they are not complete retards.