Author: Melanie Stout
With exuberant joy from subscription merchants everywhere, Mastercard has revised their much-dreaded rules for recurring businesses.
The most important take aways are:
- As the deadline was looming for the so-called “receipt requirement” for recurring merchants to send to consumers after each billing event, the merchant community and payments service providers came together in force to rally for relief from the onerous burden. The revision turns the receipt rule from a requirement to a best practice recommendation, except for certain high-risk merchants who are in the chargeback or fraud monitoring programs.
- Another much anticipated revision is to the order confirmation email. Originally requiring merchants to provide clear instructions on how to cancel, the new requirement is more broadly worded to provide details for account management capabilities (which should include the ability to cancel).
- Merchants will still be required to clearly display the terms of the recurring offer (price and frequency) on the payment and order summary pages with a specific call to accept the terms of the offer. Free trials will also need to be fully explained on these pages.
- Merchants must also provide an online or electronic method for cancellations or clear directions on how to cancel that can be accessed online.
For the complete description of the changes and requirements, see document from Mastercard.
For more information, please contact Melanie Stout or Paul Larsen.
