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I'll address a couple of points in that article.
First off, why would an IPSP start a stink about AVS sites? Name one that doesn't have some major processing tied up in AVS, or rather name one reputable one. There aren't any. IBill, CCBill, Epoch and Jettis I know for a fact have them on the books, and I'll assume that WSB and PSW do as well unless someone can definitely say otherwise...
Next, to the best of my knowledge, Visa USA has NOT stated that the sites have to pay any fees as of yet, or even decided how they want to handle the situation. As I understand it, the IPSPs were asked to present a plan to Visa detailing the nature and setup of their AVS business and what they could or would implement if needed to regulate the AVS.
At the end of the day Visa is looking out for two things --
1. protecting their brand image. It's much harder to control the content in an AVS system than it is in one where you have every URL at your disposal and can check them for compliance any time you'd like.
2. site owners who've been terminated could sneak back into the system using an AVS instead of their own merchant acct or an IPSP and that is something Visa is not going to allow.
Visa is right in saying that holding a cc number in hand does not guarantee age verification, and I highly doubt that any of the legislative bodies in the US would confirm that decision today. It's simply too easy for minors to have Visa gift cards, pre-paid debit cards with cc logos on them, etc.
If I were an AVS OWNER and my chargebacks weren't out of line, then I don't think I'd be worried unless either my bank or my IPSP told me I was in trouble directly.
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