While I understand your point of view on this, I do have to say I come from a completely different perspective. Let's start with the basic premise that VISA is a SERVICE. We pay them for the service. That does not give them the right to dictate anything except the rates they charge for their service. I, as a "merchant" cannot dictate to them how they conduct their business; they have no place telling me how I run mine. Period.
The only reason VISA gets away with this kind of bullshit is because the bulk of the people who contract with them are spineless jellyfish who are too afraid to stand up for their own rights. So the SERVICE walks all over them because they won't tell VISA to fuck off when they pull this kind of shit.
Item number two... I don't see VISA as a corporation that conducts its business in a relatively benign manner... not after the cash-grab of a few years ago. Don't forget that only a few short months after they redlined the internet, VISA settled their multi-million dollar class-action lawsuit begun by Sears, Safeway, and Wal-Mart. They were poised to lose this suit that was brought about as a result of racketeering and strong-arming their merchants, and they faced a huge payout. And so they chose a segment of the market they knew would probably not fight back -- the adult internet market -- and raped it, garnering a huge sum of money almost overnight. Four months later, they settled the four-year-old lawsuit out of court and satisfied their debt to the parties of the suit... with OUR money. In return, they have given us NOTHING extra that we weren't getting before they chose to hit us up.
Their own website, incidentally, claimed at the time that the chargeback rate (which is the WMD excuse they used to justify the charges) was something like one tenth of one percent, a fact they were proud of. So VISA is not screwing us annually because of any real threat to security or their business. They are doing it because they can, and they feel secure in their assumption that we as an industry will just take it in the ass from them.
But they are still nothing more than a SERVICE and as such have no true legal authority (as far as I can tell) to dictate to us what content we can or cannot have on our websites... especially at the premium we pay them.
As I said, I am seriously contemplating taking the loss in revenue just for the peace of mind it will give me, and the ability to speak out loudly against them and their scumbag practices. No fucking credit card company is going to censor my content and tell me to be quiet about it.
I just wish more of you had that level of pride in your businesses. If as you suggest they are as greedy as you think they are (and I am not doubting that for a minute), the sooner that a critical mass of adult websites says "fuck you" and dumps VISA, the sooner they may actually back down. The adult industry contributes a ton of money to the credit card industry each year, in addition to the 'WMD' service fees we pay. Money is the only language they understand. Take that away, and we regain our clout.
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