Palm vein biometrics deployed for payments at Paris grocery store

A Carrefour Market in Paris is implementing palm vein biometrics for payment in partnership with Ingenico, just in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, The Connexion reports.

The Carrefour Market in Paris’ 6th arrondissement will launch on July 29. Customers can link their palm biometrics to a payment card at a dedicated terminal from Ingenico. After that, they simply hold the registered palm over the payment terminal to perform authentication.

The supermarket chain says the biometric payment system enhances the security of customers’ banking data while making the checkout experience smoother. It chose the launch to coincide with the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, when huge volumes of tourists are expected to visit the city.

The system appears to be the same as the one recently launched by Tienda Inglesa’s Red Expres stores in Uruguay by Mastercard’s Biometric Checkout Program partners including Ingenico, under Mastercard’s Biometric Checkout Program. Fulcrum Biometrics, Fujitsu Frontech and Scanntech are also partners in the deployment in Uruguay.

Adoption of palm biometrics for payments are a growing trend in the retail industry, with J.P. Morgan currently carrying out a trial with PopID in the U.S. and planning more deployments next year, and Visa showcasing similar technology at its Singapore Innovation Center. Amazon has rolled out its palm biometrics scanners at all Whole Foods locations, and WeChat has a system called Palm Pay deployed to convenience stores and other retailers in China.

This post was updated at 4:43pm Eastern on July 25, 2024 to clarify that Mastercard’s Biometric Checkout Program is not involved in the Carrefour deployment.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  Ingenico  |  Mastercard  |  Mastercard Biometric Checkout Program  |  palm biometrics  |  palm vein authentication