Wal-Mart Stores is suing Visa for allegedly forcing the retailer to let customers use signatures when paying with their chip-based debit cards.
The retail giant filed a lawsuit in New York court, saying that Visa wouldn't allow Wal-Mart to just use the "chip-and-PIN" protocol and that it was required to allow customers to sign when using a chip debit card. Wal-Mart is seeking a jury trial, according to the complaint.
"PIN is the only truly secure form of cardholder verification in the marketplace today, and it offers superior security to our customers," Wal-Mart said in a Tuesday statement. The company added that its "customers understand PIN verification because it's required to access their funds at ATM machines."
"And VISA has acknowledged in many other countries that Chip and PIN offer greater security. VISA nevertheless has demanded that we allow fraud-prone signature verification for debit transactions in our U.S. stores because VISA stands to make more money processing those transactions," Wal-Mart said.
The retailer concluded by saying that Visa's "position creates unacceptable risk to customers and its actions and rules are inconsistent with federal law."
Visa declined to comment to CNBC.