Visa Faces DOJ Scrutiny for How It Prices ‘Token’ Technology

Visa Inc. is facing fresh scrutiny from the US Justice Department over how it charges merchants for technology it uses to protect cardholder information.

As part of a long-running DOJ investigation, enforcement officials have begun probing the payment giant’s policies for charging retailers more if they don’t use Visa’s proprietary “tokenization” technology, according to people familiar with the matter.

Visa office in Foster City, California

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The service, which swaps sensitive card numbers with tokens that can only be used on a specific device or with a particular merchant, is designed to improve the security of any given payment.

The inquiries come more than two years ...