IN THE BIZ

In a recent memo, credit card company VISA announced, “In order to strengthen the recent policy regarding lolita, peda and preteen, VISA will extend the definition of prohibited transactions to include bestiality or the depiction of sexual acts between humans and animals.” Epoch Transaction Services, a Marina Del Rey, California based eProcessing company publicly stated that they agree with this latest decision by VISA, and also went on the record to state that they have a zero tolerance policy for bestiality content and fully support Visa’s decision to disallow these types of transactions.

“Epoch cannot allow processing for websites that contain bestiality content,” states Clay Andrews, President and Chief Operating Officer for Epoch.IN THE BIZ

In a recent memo, credit card company VISA announced, “In order to strengthen the recent policy regarding lolita, peda and preteen, VISA will extend the definition of prohibited transactions to include bestiality or the depiction of sexual acts between humans and animals.” Epoch Transaction Services, a Marina Del Rey, California based eProcessing company publicly stated that they agree with this latest decision by VISA, and also went on the record to state that they have a zero tolerance policy for bestiality content and fully support Visa’s decision to disallow these types of transactions.

“Epoch cannot allow processing for websites that contain bestiality content,” states Clay Andrews, President and Chief Operating Officer for Epoch. “This has always been a matter of policy, and now it is also a Visa requirement. We monitor the sites that we process for on many levels including consumer complaints, unusual changes in volume, fraud, spam, etc. Any account found to be using bestiality content within their website will experience an interruption in processing until the site is brought into compliance.”

Epoch acknowledges that they have always disallowed payment processing on websites containing bestiality content since its inception in 1996. Furthermore, like other eProcessors, Epoch adheres to Merchant Category Code 5967 which classifies transaction types for adult Internet merchants. Since it is deemed as high-risk by banks and creditors, merchants face extraordinary fines if trying to use a different MCC code for processing online adult content.

But could this latest move by VISA be considered a form of censorship – flying in the face of the 1st amendment, considering that “lolita” and “preteen” sites are already avoided by creditors?

Director of Corporate Communications for Epoch, Rand Pate, disagrees. “I don’t believe that VISA is trying to censor content but instead working to protect their brand. Public opinion would undoubtedly be overwhelmingly opposed to supporting any organization which in turn knowingly supported bestiality. It makes sense for companies to protect the interests of their clients by remaining within the law and outside of public scrutiny.”

Indeed bestiality in any form is illegal in most states in the U.S., as well as many countries, and since Epoch is a U.S. based company and owned by U.S. citizens, it would appear that they are simply complying with U.S. law. VISA’s new policy against bestiality does not address any exceptions for processing this type of content for other countries, stating that, “Acquirers are prohibited from authorizing or settling any VISA transactions that can be associated with actual or ‘suggested’ bestiality”.

One has to wonder if there are any loopholes, or where the line is actually drawn. Are extreme fetish sites next on VISA’s hit list? Does it all really boil down to personal taste versus the law?

Fetish sites cover a wide range of topics, and will most likely be the next target for VISA and other creditors to deny processing for. Last week an obscenity charge over “fisting” against a prominent adult entertainer fell flat in the courts, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t another case waiting right around the corner. If it comes down to the actual language in these types of transactions, organizations like VISA may eventually take heed, and broaden their blacklist in the not-so-distant future.

To this day, Epoch continues to reject processing for bestiality sites, and claims that some of their clients have attempted to sneak this type of content onto their sites after establishing an account in good standing. “We would not hesitate terminating a client on a second offense. Our long-term objectives are far more important than any unlawful or untrustworthy webmaster,” states Andrews. When asked why Epoch is making their stance on this matter very public, Pate said, “Epoch has chosen to be very outspoken about changes that affect the entire industry. When we received advance notice of a new policy that would affect many webmasters we simply wanted to take a more proactive approach to communicating to the industry as a whole. Our efforts to communicate to the entire adult community are paying off. Epoch has increased its market share, become a much stronger company, made valuable relationships with industry insiders, and received unprecedented input from webmasters, which helped spawn exclusive new industry-friendly features. With those kinds of results, you can expect to be hearing even more from us in the future.”

Epoch has been processing transactions for the adult entertainment industry since 1996, and state that they are the largest privately-held Payment Service Provider (PSP) in the industry, processing for thousands of adult websites. Andrews adds, “Our goal is two-fold. We want to be the best processor on the planet offering more features and revenue-generating programs than any competitor, and we aim to provide superior services to both our clients and their customers, constantly moving forward with longevity and reliability as our primary focus.”

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters and can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.