Merchants maybe risking millions in fines while using Google Checkout

December 29th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Merchants maybe risking millions in fines while using Google CheckoutFrom time to time, major companies miss their PCI certification deadlines. It’s not uncommon and in fact it has been a problem that many major companies have faced. The certification process is daunting, expensive and time consuming and must be completed annually but with that said, what’s going on with Google?

Visa USA Inc. maintains a list of compliant service providers which in fact Google was listed on six months ago but no longer. Does this mean that your data is no longer safe, this I don’t know, but the reality is that this is now in question. If Google cannot maintain its PCI Certification, why isn’t it a top priority? With Google being one of the largest online retailers in addition to a third party service provider, certification is never more critical and yet they are off the list.

Will they come back next month? Let’s hope so, but the reality is that if and when Google does experience a security breach, any merchant utilizing a non-compliant service provider could in fact be faced with millions in fines. This means partners, banks, processors and anyone touching the Google system while it is not a compliant service provider.

While Google has historically been known for turning a blind eye to “The Man”, this may be one area where it should wise up. Its Google Checkout program continues to struggle to gain momentum and is headed for a strong downfall when Google is forced to discontinue it’s free processing and what is for sure is that a security breach would be the end of Google’s payments business and a hard blow to its good name.

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There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Jeorge on 2 January 2008:

    Are they going to shut the service down until the fix?

  2. Comment by joy on 2 January 2008:

    DON’T TRUST!!!!!!!
    Software Surplus
    9360 W. Flamingo Rd
    Suite 110
    Las Vegas NV 89147
    UNITED STATES
    http://www.softwaresurplus.com
    THEY SEND YOU THE WRONG STUFF U RETURN THE PRODUCT AND YOU NEVER HEARD FROM THEM.. OUT $530.00 CAUSE THEY HAD GOOGLE CHECKOUT SO I THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE! BUT I WAS WRONG!!

  3. Comment by Riley Poole on 3 January 2008:

    Sadly Google has yet to address the matter. While they have come to the post at least 10 times over the last few days, they have yet to acknowledge the matter. We await their response.

  4. Comment by Becky377 on 3 January 2008:

    Oh no, I just bought my mom an MP3 player from Buy.com with GoogleCheckout–is this going to affect me? Help!

  5. Pingback by Update on Google Checkout and MasterCard | Merchant Talk on 9 January 2008:

    [...] the necessary steps to complete their PCI certification. In less than a week after our post about Google not being PCI Compliant, the good people at Google quickly responded to the matter and have completed all of the [...]

  6. Comment by Mary Moglia on 10 January 2008:

    My son received a debit card for Christmas. He went through this google merchant (they’re located in China). There is a communication gap. They never shipped the item because they needed to get a different size. We didn’t want a different size nor a different type of shoe. They billed the debit card for $49.99. They will not cancel the order nor return the money. We emailed back and forth, but now they will not answer any of my emails. It looks like my son lost $49.99. This is pitiful. I will never order online again.

  7. Comment by harakiri on 2 February 2008:

    Google should bear whatever lapses it has caused to its service users. It is a must for Google Checkout to comply with the requirements of PCI certification. At this point Google Checkout has not been living to its earlier expectation as the next Paypal.

  8. Comment by colin on 27 November 2008:

    i purchased an item from a seller in glasgow using google checkout. £150 8 weeks ago i have not recieved the product seller, he cannot be contacted as he is not answering phone calls or emails and of course google checkout dont seem to want to know despite sending at least 10 emails they need to get this sorted out if this was paypal your money is payed back almost straight away its just not good enough google . regards colin northern ireland

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