Saying VISA is interpreting its new online payment policies to mean it's not accepting transactions originating from sites age verification services don't own, SexCheck is telling affiliates to remove SexCheck "join" panels from their Websites.
And according to at least one adult industry veteran, this could well enough mean the end of the AVS model, leaving AVS companies to consider options like becoming direct billing providers or even content site owners if they want to stay in business.
"We at SexCheck have been informed that VISA has interpreted its regulations to prohibit AVS programs from accepting transactions originating at sites not owned by the AVS program itself," SexCheck said in a letter circulated to affiliate Webmasters this week. "This means that SexCheck, as an AVS, can no longer include sites owned by third party Webmasters. So not only must SexCheck no longer accept for review any third party site submissions, any third party sites participating in the program must be removed."
Sex Check officials weren't available for comment before this story went to press, but PSW Billing vice president for marketing Cynthia (Cyndalie) Fanshaw said the news about SexCheck wasn't exactly a surprise. She also said that this "basically kind of kills the AVS model as it stands.
"If SexCheck wants to stay in business, the only way they could operate is to own every Website and its content," or to become direct billing providers, she told AVN.com. "MasterCard and Visa want a database of the URLs that are processing Visa, so that would make pretty much every AVS Webmaster register with Visa and they might as well make every AVS a paysite."
Attempts to reach such AVS services as Adult Check, AdultBouncer.com, and Xpass.com for comment were unsuccessful before this story went to press. Based in Brampton, Ontario, AdultBouncer.com may or may not have been affected by the blackout that paralysed much of the northeastern U.S. and Ontario province August 14-15. We will have more as this story develops.
