[parliament32]

AMEX was/is the old-school equivalent of this. They would unapologetically ban merchants from accepting AMEX (forever!) after even a handful of complaints/chargebacks. This is also a key part of why you see some shops/restaurants with the "no AMEX" signs on their terminals -- don't be fooled by the "AMEX is too expensive to accept" red-herring, the actual difference for AMEX vs Visa/MC is ~1%[1], really not enough to matter for most businesses.

[1] Average brick-and-mortar interchange fees for Visa and MC range 1.85% to 2.6%, AMEX is 2.5% to 3.3%.

[greyb]

Anecdotal, but every small business owner I've talked to have said it's because of the 1% difference in fees, even with OptBlue.

I've only had 1 business owner ever say it was due to chargebacks, a small tea shop in a Chinatown in Canada. They also don't take Mastercard for the same reason.

This is also why American Express launched the Cobalt card in Canada, which had a 5x multiplier for eats, drinks and groceries, and pushed it so hard for years on social media and bus shelters, despite eventually starting to disincentivize it (it was a loss leader/upgrade feeder product for Amex). They wanted to win merchants back with a new generation of hip, social media savvy Amex customers.

[lotsofpulp]

AmEx also does not pay the merchant as quick as Visa and MC. And 1% is a significant cut for most retail businesses, as they have low single digit profit margins.