Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company.
Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated.
The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay.
Photo: CNA
On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods.
Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual outlets to make their own decision about whether to continue their association with Jkopay.
Jkopay, which serves more than 6.5 million users in Taiwan, told the Central News Agency on Saturday that user withdrawals have stabilized, with daily balances returning to a normal level of NT$4 billion (US$137 million) after Jkopay chairman Jacob Mei (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.
The company said there was no run on its users’ accounts.
The wave of suspensions began on Friday, when E-Life Mall Corp (全國電子), a major 3C distributor in Taiwan, became the first Jkopay partner to cut ties. That came just one day after police executed a court-ordered seizure of assets belonging to Jkopay’s parent firm, Jko Fintech Co (街口金融科技), in connection with a NT$3.6 billion claim filed by food conglomerate Taisun Enterprise Co (泰山企業).
Other retailers, including e-commerce platforms PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), Shopee and Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體), quickly followed suit. However, Momo and PChome resumed Jkopay services later that day at about 11pm.
The asset seizure stems from a ruling by the Taipei District Court in May, which found a 2023 deal for Taisun to acquire a 40 percent stake in Jko Fintech to be invalid. The court ordered Jko Fintech to return the NT$3.6 billion paid by Taisun, along with 5 percent interest.
Jko Fintech has contested the ruling, maintaining the deal was legitimate and attributing the dispute to 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 said that Jkopay’s assets are under the agency’s supervision and would not be affected by the district court’s ruling against Jko Fintech.
As of Saturday, fast food chains McDonald’s Taiwan and Burger King, both partners of Jkopay, said the digital payment service provider remained operational at their restaurants.
McDonald’s Taiwan said all third-party payment services at its restaurants are available as usual, while Burger King said it has not received any notice of any digital payment changes.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
RSS