I suspect it is an application of a Merchant or cardholder initiated “Card on file” transaction.

https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/card-on-file

I suspect a merchant holds liability for a chargeback from a merchant initiated transaction.

And the cardholder/issuer holds the liability for a cardholder initiated transaction.

Here, my hunch is this is merchant initiated, using the biometric data associated with their customers card on file to initiate the transaction. From the issuers perspective these should be lower risk. Not because the biometric data is being used, but because the merchant is holding the risk and they may be getting a cheaper rate on the transaction from the networks, not certain about that.

The backend is the same Visa/MasterCard system that enable recurring transaction just some sophistication on the merchants side holding the card on file and the scanner, probably using Network Tokens in place of the card number in their database, let’s hope, to initiate the transaction.

My curiosity is the biometric data and how easy it may be to trick. And how vulnerable it may be to steal from them. Anybody want to photocopy their hand and test it out?