←back to thread

Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games

(www.pcgamer.com)
709 points freedomben | 1 comments | 18 Jul 25 15:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.239s | source
Show context
ranger_danger ◴[18 Jul 25 16:25 UTC] No.44606578[source]▶
What can be done to loosen card companies' grip on this? It has been a constant problem now for decades.
replies(11): >>44606634 #>>44606685 #>>44606756 #>>44606802 #>>44606833 #>>44606849 #>>44606971 #>>44607003 #>>44607861 #>>44611206 #>>44614164 #
Sohcahtoa82 ◴[18 Jul 25 16:34 UTC] No.44606685[source]▶
Likely nothing.

The simple fact is, Visa/MC don't want to deal with porn because the number of chargebacks and fraud from porn purchases is significant and a huge outlier compared to most other charges. Their crusade against processing charges for adult material isn't about purity, it's simply business.

replies(6): >>44606700 #>>44606865 #>>44606881 #>>44607005 #>>44607010 #>>44607017 #
1. gs17 ◴[18 Jul 25 16:53 UTC] No.44607005[source]▶
I'm not sure I buy the chargeback angle. It's commonly trotted out as a reason card companies would enforce censorship, but it doesn't make sense with the actions they take. Chargeback fees are paid by the merchant regardless of the chargeback's success, and are supposed to cover the costs of administering it (and then some). The very selective rules applied here are pretty odd from that angle too, if adult content chargebacks/fraud is the issue, then all of it should be the issue, not small niches.

Fraud is likely more realistic of an issue, but that's probably an issue with games in general, not just adult titles.

There are already high-risk merchant accounts with higher fees and cash reserve requirements, but AFAIK companies like Valve aren't being given any options other than comply or be destroyed.