Carrefour, Mia C'bon suspend cooperation with JKoPay

Taipei, July 12 (CNA) Hypermarket chain Carrefour and upscale super market operator Mia C'bon on Saturday announced they have suspended cooperation with JKoPay, one of Taiwan's leading digital payment service providers, amid a lawsuit involving the mobile payment firm's parent company.

Carrefour and Mia C'bon said they will notify clients when the service is resumed.

The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnership with JKoPay.

Late Friday night, TP TEA, a popular handshake drinks brands in Taiwan, announced the suspension of its cooperation with JKoPay, suggesting customers use other payment services.

Meanwhile, Guiji, another handshake drinks vendor, said on Friday that it is up to individual outlets to make their own decision about whether to continue their association with JKoPay.

JKoPay, which has more than 6.50 million users in Taiwan, told CNA on Saturday that withdrawals of funds placed in their users' accounts showed signs of moderating and the daily balance has hovered at the normal level of NT$4 billion (US$137 million) after JKoPay Chairperson Mei Hua (梅驊) said a day earlier that the company operates independently from its parent company and all funds involved in its services are held in trust.

JKoPay emphasized there was no run on its users' accounts.

E-life Corp., a leading 3C distributor in Taiwan, became the first JKoPay partner to announce Friday it was suspending cooperation, a day after police executed a court-ordered seizure of assets belonging to JKoPay's parent company, JKO FinTech Co., to enforce a NT$3.6 billion claim at the request of food brand Taisun Enterprise Co.

Following E-Life, several other retailers such as e-commerce portals PChome, Shopee and momo, took similar action on Friday. However, momo and PChome announced their payment services through JKoPay resumed at around 11 p.m. that day.

In May, a district court in Taipei ruled a deal for Taisun to acquire roughly a 40 percent stake in JKO FinTech in 2023 was invalid. The court ordered JKO FinTech to return the payment of NT$3.6 billion plus 5 percent interest to Taisun.

However, JKO FinTech said the business transaction was valid as Taisun's claim resulted from internal infighting among the company's management and refused to return the money. The court-ordered seizure of assets followed a petition filed by Taisun.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the top financial regulator in Taiwan, has said JKoPay's assets are under the agency's supervision and will not be affected by the district court's ruling against its parent company.

Meanwhile, MacDonald's, one of JKoPay's partners, said third party payment services at its restaurants are available as usual, while Burger King, another JKoPay's partner, said it has not received any notice of any digital payment changes.