Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement

October 2015
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant
Agreement
Kortaccept Nordic AB, Finnish Branch, org.nr. 2709012-2, Part of Teller, www.teller.com
These Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement consist of
Part A – General rules
Part B – Country-specific rules and rules for domestic card
programmes
Part C – Sector- and/or -service-specific rules
Part A – General rules
1. Application of the rules
This extract of rules describes the framework which applies
to the agreement entered into between the Merchant and the
Acquirer in respect of acquiring of card transactions.
2. General remarks regarding the acquiring of card transactions
and the Merchant Agreement as a whole, contradiction in terms
and conditions
‘Acquiring of card transactions’ refers to the services offered for
authorising, clearing and settling card transactions carried out
at the Merchant.
The services provided by the Acquirer under the Merchant
Agreement are mainly directed to entrepreneurs, companies and
associations and they are always to be used for industrial and
commercial activity only.
The content of the service and the parties’ responsibilities and
rights are stated in the approved Merchant Agreement application, in the General rules (Part A) and in the Specific rules (cf
Parts B and C) and in the Merchant Instructions which altogether at any given time constitute the content of the Merchant
Agreement. The Acquirer is not liable for any damage caused
to the Merchant as a result of the Merchant not complying with
the terms and conditions of the Merchant Agreement.
The Acquirer’s right and ability to offer card services are affected
by Visa’s and MasterCard’s regulations and directives. The
contractual relation between the Acquirer and the Merchant must
comply with these regulations. The Merchant instructions as in
force at the time of approval of the Merchant Agreement application by the Acquirer are sent by the Acquirer to the Merchant or
they are set available to the Merchant in the Teller’s Merchant
Portal.
Should the approved Merchant Agreement application conflict
with the General rules or the Specific rules, the approved Merchant Agreement application prevails.
Should the General rules conflict with the Specific rules, the
Specific rules shall prevail.
3. Use of third-party service providers
Either party may fulfil its obligations under this Merchant
Agreement using a third-party service provider. All third-party
service providers have to be PCI-compliant and registered as
an approved service provider according to the card scheme instructions. The parties are responsible for the activities of their
third-party service providers as for their own.
4. Scope
The Merchant may utilise the services provided under the
Merchant Agreement by the Acquirer only to payments made
with MasterCards (debit, credit, Maestro) and Visa cards (debit,
credit, Visa Electron, V PAY) and other cards stated in the
Merchant Agreement.
The card issuers may also introduce new card products (em-
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
bossed or unembossed). In the case some card issuer introduces new card products, the Merchant may start accepting
them as means of payment after complying with the procedures
instructed by the Acquirer.
The Merchant approves the new terms and conditions (including without limitation new pricing) set by the Acquirer applicable to acquiring of the new card products as the Merchant
accepts a Transaction made by a new card product.
5. Other cards
The Merchant may enter into agreements with companies
that acquire types of cards other than those described in the
Merchant Agreement. The Merchant must notify the Acquirer of
any such agreements before the card company’s cards may be
used at the Merchant. Purchases made with such cards are to
be credited to the account that is designated by the Merchant
and stated in the Merchant Agreement.
6. Types of card payments and other definitions
6.1 Acquirer: means the acquirer, Kortaccept Nordic AB,
Finnish Branch in this Merchant Agreement.
6.2 Standard payment (POS): Payments to manned Merchants
by the cardholder using the card’s chip or magnetic stripe in a
payment terminal providing proof of identity by a PIN code, signature or other approved Cardholder Verification Method (CVM)
or payments to manned Merchants by the cardholder using the
card’s or a mobile’s contactless feature.
Special conditions apply to Standard payments (POS).
6.3 Online purchases in eCommerce environment: Payments
to virtual Merchants by the cardholder via the Internet or
another open network approved by the Acquirer, approving payments made with the card. Special conditions apply to online
purchases.
6.4 Mail and telephone orders (MO/TO): Payments to Merchants that offer goods and services via mail order and telephone order sales. The cardholder writes the number, etc., of
the card on the mail order which is signed, or this information
is stated on the telephone. Special conditions apply to mail and
telephone orders.
6.5 Hotels: A Merchant that offers overnight accommodation,
possibly with advance booking. Special conditions apply to
hotels.
6.6 Vehicle rental: A Merchant that offers vehicle rental, possibly with advance booking.
Special conditions apply to vehicle rentals.
6.7 Unattended payment terminals or Cardholder-Activated
Terminals (CAT): Payments are made at unattended terminals
by the cardholder using the card in a selfservice payment
terminal, possibly providing proof of identity with a PIN code if
the payment terminal asks for this. Special conditions apply to
unattended payment solutions and automatic machines.
6.8 Recurring payments: A Merchant and a cardholder may enter into an agreement to make periodic payments, often without
stating a fixed amount and for an unspecified period.
Special conditions apply to recurring payments.
6.9 Cash Advance: The service allows cardholders to withdraw
cash either through an ATM or over the counter at a bank or
other financial agency, up to a certain limit.
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6.10 Quasi-Cash: A Transaction representing a Merchant’s sale
of items that are directly convertible to cash, for example, currency exchange. Special conditions apply to Quasi- Cash.
6.24 Merchant ID: An identification number given by the
Acquirer to the Merchant which specifies the Point-of-Sale,
Trading Site and/or the main Point-of-Sale.
6.11 Cash-back: The cardholder may withdraw cash from the
Merchant when paying a purchase at the Point-of-Sale – effectively offering two services in one transaction. Cashback is a
domestic service and only cardholders of the participating issuers having access to it. The EMV POS terminal needs to support
the service and its requirements.
Special Country-specific rules apply to Cashback.
6.25 Merchant Instructions: Instructions issued by the Acquirer
in order to comply with, among others, the rules and instructions of the International Card Organisations, including payment
card handling, data security, MO/TO, eCommerce and functions
of terminals, as well as best practices and other information to
Merchants.
6.12 Authentication service: A function in which the cardholder is identified by the issuer of the card in connection with
an Internet-based online payment by means of a separate set of
IDs and/or passwords (for example, 3DSecure like MasterCard
SecureCode and Verified by Visa).
6.13 Authorisation: A check carried out by the Merchant in
which the card issuer states whether the card’s status or the
size of the amount prevents a transaction from being executed.
6.14 Authorisation limit: Limit specified by the Acquirer in
the local currency for a Point-of-Sale or Trading Site within
which the Point-of-Sale or Trading Site in question must always
authorise transactions.
6.15 Banking Day: Banking Day means a business day on
which banks generally are open to the public for carrying on
substantially all of banking functions.
6.16 Card data: Card data means the card number, expiry
date, and verification code of the cardholder’s card.
6.17 Card Scheme: means the Visa and MasterCard card
organisations and their card schemes as well as other card
schemes the parties may agree at any given time. It refers
mainly to Visa and MasterCard, as the owners of the payment
scheme, into which an Acquirer or any other eligible financial
institution can become a member. By becoming a member
of the scheme, the member is thereby authorised to issue or
acquire the Transactions performed within the scheme.
6.18 Card Verification Code/Value (CVC/CVV) are security
features of the card, such as CVC, CVV, iCVV or PVV. Three- or
four-digit number series printed on the card’s signature panel,
such as CVV2, CVC2, are used in mail orders or telephone
orders and eCommerce environment.
6.19 Charge back: A procedure in which an issuer charges all
or part of the amount of a Transaction back via an Acquirer to
the Merchant in accordance with Card Scheme regulations.
6.20 EMV: EMV® is a global standard for credit and debit
cards based on chip card technology.
6.21 International Card Organisations/Card Schemes: Visa and
MasterCard card organisations and their card schemes, as well
as other card schemes the parties may agree on.
6.22 Merchant: The entrepreneur, company or other entity that
has concluded a Merchant Agreement with the Acquirer, including all its Points-of-Sale and/or Trading Sites.
6.23 Merchant Agreement: The application/agreement with the
appendices, rules and Merchant Instructions which together in
their format at any given time constitute the Merchant Agreement.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
6.26 Merchant Portal
Merchant Portal: is a web-based service provided by the Acquirer
where the Merchant’s administrator gets access and grants access rights within the Merchant organisation. The portal provides
information about settlements, batches, specific Transactions
and calculated fees. In addition, Merchants can view information
about Acquiring products and services and the latest news.
6.27 Payment Service Provider (PSP/internet Payment Service
Provider (iPSP)): A third party used by the Merchant to which
the Merchant sends the Transactions acquired by it (e.g. a
third party or other transaction router). The Merchant Processor
must be a certified service provider in accordance with the PCI
standard.
6.28 PCI: PCI DSS is the international Payment Card Industry
Data Security Standard, used by Visa International, MasterCard
Worldwide, American Express, JCB and Discover Financial
Services. PCI DSS and other payment card industry standards complement each other and define the minimum safety
requirements for card transactions. Adhering to this standard is
compulsory for all parties receiving, transmitting or storing card
transactions.
6.29 Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal: A certified device and/or
system used by the Merchant that reads and verifies the card
data.
6.30 Secure Payment Application (SPA): Security method
designed to authenticate cardholders when they pay online.
6.31 Transaction date (T): A date on which the Acquirer (or the
collection centre with which the Acquirer has on agreement)
has received a Transaction with the correct content and in the
agreed format from the Merchant or from the Merchant’s Payment Service Provider.
6.32 Terminal vendor: A company which supplies certified POS
terminals to other companies or Merchants.
6.33 Trading Site: A site approved by the Acquirer with a
distinctive Merchant ID issued by the Acquirer and used by the
Merchant for MO/TO or eCommerce.
6.34 Transaction: Information about payment based on an
agreement between a company and a cardholder to transfer an
amount from the cardholder to the Merchant.
6.35 Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAF): A field
to support a universal, multipurpose data transport infrastructure that the Card Scheme uses to communicate authentication information among the cardholder, merchant, issuer and
acquirer communities.
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7. Rights and obligations of the Acquirer
7.1 Authorisation routing, Transaction Acquiring and Data Errors
The Acquirer routes the authorisation requests sent by the
Merchant and/or the Merchants Payment Service Provider
(PSP) to the Acquirer on the terms and conditions set out in the
Merchant Agreement.
The Acquirer acquires all Transactions properly presented to
it and received by it on the terms and conditions set out in
the Merchant Agreement. The Merchant must ensure that
the Transactions are sent by the PSP of the Merchant to the
Acquirer and that the transaction data sent by the terminal or
other solution is free from errors. The Acquirer is entitled to refuse to acquire or send to the card issuer Transactions that have
been found to be erroneous or are suspected to be erroneous as
well as to apply an extended settlement period.
Errors in an assembled data set comprising transactions of
several companies and sent by the Payment Service Provider
might result in an extended settlement period with respect to
all transactions within the same assembled data set, even if the
error only concerns a part of the assembled data, e.g. another
company than the Merchant.
If the Acquirer acquires and settles to the Merchant, Transactions that the Merchant has delivered after the due date or that
have been erroneous, the Acquirer is entitled to deduct the
Transaction contested by the cardholder or card issuer and any
other expenses incurred by the Acquirer from the subsequent
settlements with the Merchant and/or its Points-of-Sale or Trading Sites, or to otherwise debit these to the Merchant.
The Acquirer is also entitled to refuse to acquire Transactions
that entail a specific risk of credit loss or misuse or for any
other justified cause for refusal, or to apply an extended settlement period with respect to such Transactions.
The Acquirer is not liable for an extended settlement period
caused by errors in transaction data or assembled data sets or
caused by Transactions delivered after the due date.
7.2 The Acquirer’s settlement guarantee
The Acquirer undertakes to provide settlement to the Merchant
for the Transactions properly presented to the Acquirer and received by the Acquirer in accordance with the Merchant Agreement. The settlement takes place at the latest on a day followed
by the number of Banking Days after the Transaction Date
agreed in the Merchant Agreement. The payment is to be made
to the account that is designated by the Merchant and stated
in the Merchant Agreement. The settlement is to take place in
the same currency as that in which the transaction took place
unless otherwise stated in the Merchant Agreement. The settlement account must be in the same currency as the settlement.
The Acquirer’s obligation to make payment in accordance with
this provision is conditional (i) on the Merchant having met its
obligations in accordance with the Merchant Agreement and
(ii) on the date of settlement being (a) a Banking Day, and (b)
where the currency of the payment is other than the domestic
currency of the Acquirer, a day (other than Saturday or Sunday)
on which banks are open for general business in the principal
financial centre of the country of that currency to enable the
Acquirer to execute the Transactions in such currency.
If the Merchant is liable for a loss caused to the Acquirer or the
Merchant has received settlement for transactions to which it is
not entitled, the Acquirer has the right to deduct a corresponding amount from a later settlement with the Merchant. The
Acquirer does not normally check the Transaction before settlement is made to the Merchant. The Acquirer may use set-off to
collect any claim that it has against the Merchant in connection
with this Merchant Agreement.
The Acquirer is entitled to hold back the settlement as a risk
management measure if it suspects that the Merchant would
cause financial or any other kind of risk to the Acquirer. In addition the Acquirer may be obliged to hold back the settlement or
do the settlement (in whole or partly) to a third party subject to
law or other order binding on the Acquirer.
7.3 Repayment obligation of the Merchant and the Acquirer’s
right to charge back
Where a cardholder makes a complaint regarding a Transaction
which has been reported by the Merchant and the Acquirer
does not find that the complaint is clearly erroneous, the Acquirer is to charge back the Transaction from the Merchant.
Where a Transaction related to a standard payment is made at
an EMV terminal or the parties have specifically agreed upon
guaranteed payment for transactions of the relevant type, the
Merchant must, within seven (7) days of the earlier of (i) the
Acquirer’s retrieval request or (ii) charge back, demonstrate that
in conjunction with the Transaction the Merchant has made the
verifications and otherwise has fulfilled the requirements stated
in this Merchant Agreement. Where the complaint is based
on such, the Merchant must also demonstrate that there was
no defect or deficiency on the article or service to which the
Transaction related. In the event that the sales company does
not fulfil its obligations in this respect, a repayment obligation
arises and the amount is charged back from the Merchant.
Where the Transaction relates to any other type of card payment, the Merchant must, in addition to the requirements set
out chapter hereinabove within seven (7) days the earlier of (i)
the Acquirer’s retrieval request or (ii) charge back, demonstrate
that the Transaction was ordered by the cardholder. Where the
Merchant fails to fulfil its obligations in this respect or where
the complaint, in accordance with Visa’s or MasterCard’s rules
and regulations, is such that the Transaction can be rejected, a
repayment obligation arises.
Where repayment obligations arise, the Merchant must immediately pay an amount to the Acquirer corresponding to that
which the Acquirer must pay to the issuer who had issued the
card used, plus interest on such amount for the period from
the date that the Acquirer paid the Transaction amount to the
Merchant until such time as payment is made by the Merchant
at an interest rate corresponding to local law.
The Acquirer is entitled to debit the Merchant’s account in the
case a repayment obligation arises and the Merchant is obligated to pay in accordance with this provision.
The disputed amount may be debited to the Merchant’s account
unless the Acquirer can immediately reject the cardholder’s
complaint as being groundless.
From the date when the Acquirer receives a claim for payment
as mentioned above or is made aware that there may be a
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breach of the Merchant Agreement, the Acquirer may freeze
funds in the Merchant’s accounts in the amount equal to the
claim against the Acquirer brought by a third party.
The Acquirer is entitled to charge a fee for each charge back
that occurs during the invoicing period.
Should complaints or losses relating to the Merchant during the
previous thirty (30) days exceed 0.5% of the card volumes or
number of Transactions on a specific Merchant ID, the Acquirer
may debit the Merchant for processing costs and/or for charges
or fees imposed on the Acquirer by MasterCard or Visa.
The Acquirer is also entitled to charge the Merchant for fees
and other claims for compensation that can be brought against
the Acquirer by a third party (such as MasterCard and Visa) on
the basis that the Merchant has breached the Merchant Agreement. Handling costs that the Acquirer incurs in connection
with processing the claim may also be debited to the Merchant.
The parties are to have a continuous dialogue regarding the
volume of complaints and implementation of measures to limit
the number of complaints as low as possible.
7.4 Merchant Portal and reporting
Merchant Portal is a service provided by the Acquirer to the
Merchant. The Acquirer defines the content of the Merchant
Portal at any given time.
The Acquirer provides the Merchant with administrator codes
with which the Merchant’s administrator may create the necessary number of user IDs entitling the access to the Merchant
Portal. The Merchant identifies itself to the Merchant Portal by
utilising the user ID’s. The Merchant undertakes to keep, and
is liable for keeping, the identification data, consisting of a user
ID and password, used in the interactive services separate from
each other. The Merchant is liable for the proper safekeeping of
identification data to prevent all unauthorised third parties from
accessing the data. The Merchant acknowledges the fact that
a person using the created ID always has access rights to the
Merchant Portal and is entitled to represent the Merchant towards the Acquirer relating to documents set into the Merchant
Portal. If the identification data has been lost or the Merchant
has reason to suspect that an unauthorised person has gained
access to the identification data, it is obligated to prevent unauthorised use and to notify the Acquirer thereof immediately.
The Merchant is liable for informing all its employees and other
persons acting on its behalf who use or keep its identification
data of the safekeeping obligations.
The Merchant acquires the data communications required
for the use of the Merchant Portal and is responsible for their
functioning, costs and security. The Acquirer is not responsible
for any failures in data communications or data transfer that do
not derive from the Acquirer. Both parties are responsible for
ensuring proper data security for their own data systems and for
seeing to it that the systems are protected against unauthorised
use in a reliable manner.
The Acquirer sets available to the Merchant in the Merchant
Portal (or at option of the Acquirer or if it has been separately
so agreed, sends via e-mail or by mail) a report on the settlements on each Banking Day. In addition, the Acquirer sets
available in the Merchant Portal or sends via e-mail a monthly
summary report to the Merchant. The Acquirer may make
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
changes to the reporting system. If the change adds the Merchant’s obligations or restricts its rights, the change is subject
to a prior notification to the Merchant in accordance with clause
16 of Part A Rules.
The Acquirer may give notifications to the Merchant by using
the Merchant Portal, as stated in these Rules.
7.5 Use of the service
The Acquirer or the Acquirer’s service provider does not guarantee uninterrupted use of the service. The Acquirer or the Acquirer’s service provider endeavours to rectify faults and errors
notified by the Merchant within a reasonable time or, depending
on the nature of the fault or error, in connection with further
upgrading of the service.
The Acquirer or its service provider is entitled to interrupt the
use of the service if this is necessary for the maintenance;
repair or upgrading of the service or if there is another justified
cause for the interruption. The Acquirer or its service provider
notifies the Merchant of any interruptions in the use of the
service in advance, if possible.
7.6 Reserve/security
The Acquirer may demand that the Merchant has to provide security for its obligations to the Acquirer. This may take the form
of a deposit in a bank, the withholding of settlement or some
other form according to the Acquirer’s demands. The security is
to be returned to the Merchant 540 days after the termination
of the Merchant Agreement at the latest.
7.7 Inspection of the Merchant’s premises
The Acquirer or a party named by the Acquirer is entitled,
without giving prior notice, to have access to the Merchant’s
premises and equipment for handling card transactions in
order to inspect these and ensure that the Merchant’s operations are bona fide and honourable. If the Merchant has a
service provider to handle the Transactions, the Merchant must
ensure that the Acquirer is given a corresponding opportunity to
inspect this company’s premises and equipment. The inspection pursuant to this provision may take place at least once in a
calendar year unless there are unforeseen grounds for carrying
out such an inspection more often. Should any error or breach
of security regulations be ascertained, the Merchant undertakes
to correct these.
A site inspection visit report should be generated. The Acquirer
may request the Merchant to replace the equipment. If the
Merchant’s equipment or other procedures do not fulfil the
requirements set by the Acquirer, the Merchant shall replace
the equipment and/or change the procedures at the Acquirer’s
request in a manner and within the period specified by the
Acquirer. In case of non-compliance with the Acquirer’s request,
the Acquirer may terminate the Merchant Agreement.
7.8 Miscellaneous
The Acquirer may record the calls to its service numbers. The
recorded calls will be processed by the authorised personnel
only. Recordings will be used, among others, in the processing
of claims and in staff training.
The Acquirer is entitled to give a Payment Service Provider and/
or terminal vendor necessary information about the Merchant in
order to set up the Merchant POS terminals or other systems for
the service correctly.
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8. Rights and obligations of the Merchant
8.1 Handing over of Transactions and technical standards
The equipment that the Merchant is to use for Transactions
and authorisations (such as a terminal), including software,
hardware and communications, must be certified and must
comply with the prevailing technical standards and guidelines
stipulated by the Acquirer. The Merchant is to send the Transactions, the authorisation requests and authorisation reversals to
the Acquirer (or a collection centre with which the Acquirer has
an agreement) in accordance with the prevailing standard and
guidelines stipulated by the Acquirer. The Merchant is responsible for the functioning, costs and security of its equipment
used for authorisations, gathering and storing information and
handing over Transactions.
The Merchant may use a Payment Service Provider to process
authorisations and transactions, pass them on to the Acquirer
and reverse them. This Payment Service Provider (and any
changes of it) must be approved by the Acquirer before the
Merchant starts to use the relevant Payment Service Provider.
The Payment Service Provider is to comply with the standards
and guidelines which apply to the Merchant. The Merchant is
at all times responsible for the Payment Service Provider and liable for its errors, costs, and the like. The Merchant must notify
the Acquirer of its intention to start to use a different Payment
Service Provider well in advance in order to receive the approval
or denial of the Acquirer early enough.
A special merchant number provided by the Acquirer must be
stated in connection with the sending or reversal of Transactions and authorisations. Where the Merchant Agreement
covers several types of card payments the Acquirer provides
a merchant number for each type of card payment under the
Merchant Agreement.
Transactions are to be deposited with the Acquirer (or a collection centre with which the Acquirer has an agreement) within
two (2) days after the Transaction date on which the cardholder
has authorised the payment at the latest unless otherwise
agreed in the Merchant Agreement. The Merchant is always liable to retrieve the feedback on that the Transactions have been
sent. If Transactions are received by the Acquirer (or a collection
centre with which the Acquirer has an agreement) later than by
the above-mentioned cut-off time, the Acquirer may refuse to
settle the Transactions or to write back settlements that have
been made.
It is the Merchant’s responsibility to ensure that the Merchant
has received settlement for Transactions which have been sent
to the Acquirer. The Merchant must complain about any lack
of settlement within twenty-one (21) calendar days after the
Transactions have been handed over to the Acquirer at the
latest.
In order to decrease the risk relating to malfunctioning of equipment used to send Transactions to the Acquirer, the Merchant
is advised to send Transactions to the Acquirer online or at least
on a daily basis. The Acquirer may refuse to settle the Transactions sent to the Acquirer in an incorrect form.
In the case of any necessary replacement or modification of
equipment and system changes, including the introduction of
chip cards, the Merchant and Acquirer are each to pay their
own costs.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
The Merchant is financially responsible for Transactions in
which a chip card has been used at a terminal or other solution
that is not approved in accordance with the EMV specifications.
8.2 Authorisations and blocking controls
The Merchant shall authorise each Transaction unless otherwise
stated in the Merchant Agreement, in the specific terms and
conditions or in the Merchant Instructions. An authorisation is a
confirmation from the card issuer that the payment may be carried out. The authorisation may also provide other information
but it does not confirm the correct identity of the cardholder.
An approved authorisation alone does not provide the Merchant
with a guarantee that the card payment will be settled, see
clause 7. The floor limit of authorisations must not be disclosed
to any unauthorised third parties (including the cardholder).
The entire purchase price (the total amount) must be authorised or verified as one amount. The Merchant cannot evade the
floor limit dividing the amount or split sales. If the floor limit
is exceeded without authorisation having been obtained, the
Acquirer may reject or reverse the Transaction.
Transactions involving Electron or Maestro cards must at all
times be authorised online before they are executed. The same
applies to cash-back cash withdrawal transactions.
If the Merchant receives a blocking notice from the Acquirer
and attempts are made to use a card stated on the notice, the
card is to be rejected.
An obtained authorisation must be reversed as soon as possible
(and however not later than within 24 hours) after a Transaction cancellation or a finalisation of a Transaction for an amount
lower than the authorised amount. The Merchant shall ensure
(with its PSP) that the reversal has been made. Any authorised amount not reversed must correspond to the Transaction
amount.
The rules and instructions regarding the manner in which
authorisation takes place may be specified in the specific terms
and conditions and in the Merchant Instructions.
8.2.1 Further terms and conditions applicable to the authorisations of MasterCard Transactions
In addition to the terms set out in clause 8.2, the terms set out
in this clause 8.2.1 are applicable to the authorisations relating
to Transactions made using a MasterCard payment card unless
otherwise stated in the specific terms and conditions or in the
Merchant Instructions.
The Merchant must code the authorisation request as either
pre-authorisation or final authorisation. Pre-authorisations of
Maestro Transactions are allowed only in online shopping in
eCommerce environment and at unattended, automated fuel
dispensers as set out in the specific terms and conditions or in
the Merchant Instructions.
Unless otherwise stated in the specific terms and conditions or
in the Merchant Instructions, the Merchant shall use the final
authorisation in which the authorisation is requested for the
final Transaction amount and the Transaction may no longer
be cancelled after the authorisation request is approved in full.
Each approved final authorisation has a payment guarantee period of seven (7) calendar days from the authorisation approval
date unless otherwise stated in the specific terms and conditions or in the Merchant Instructions.
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A pre-authorisation is an authorisation in which the authorisation is requested for an estimated amount and/or the Transaction may not be completed for reasons other than a technical failure or lack of full issuer approval. Pre-authorisations
may only be used in accordance with the specific terms and
conditions and/or the Merchant Instructions. Each approved
pre-authorisation has a payment guarantee period of thirty
(30) calendar days from the authorisation approval date unless
otherwise stated in the specific terms and conditions or in the
Merchant Instructions.
To extend the duration of the payment guarantee period, the
Merchant may submit additional authorisation requests for the
same Transaction on later dates. A unique identifier from the
original approved authorisation of a Transaction must appear
in each additional authorisation request. The approved amount
of any authorisation with an expired guarantee is deemed to be
zero.
8.3 Commissions and other fees
The Merchant shall pay to the Acquirer the fees stated in the
tariff of the Acquirer for the services stated in the Merchant
Agreement and other charges, commissions, fees and costs in
accordance with the Merchant Agreement. Unless otherwise
agreed, the amounts are to be debited in the same currency as
the one in which the relevant Transaction is executed and are
to be documented by a bank statement or separate statements.
All other fees are to be debited in the domestic currency of the
Acquirer, unless otherwise agreed in the Merchant Agreement.
The account to which the fee will be debited should be in the
same currency as the fee.
The Merchant is to ensure that there are always sufficient funds
to cover the amount debited. The Acquirer is allowed to debit
the commissions and fees monthly to the Merchant’s account if
nothing else is specified in the Merchant Agreement.
A tariff and Merchant commissions are part of the Merchant
Agreement. The service fees and commissions are debited to
the Merchant’s account monthly in Gross settlement option and
deducted from the settlement amount in Net settlement option.
Should the Merchant Agreement be terminated by one of the
parties during a period for which the Merchant has paid a fee,
any of the fees may not be refunded to the Merchant.
8.4 Permitted transactions
The Merchant is to accept transactions with all types of cards
that are within the scope of the Merchant Agreement.
Additional rules for the handling of cards and card transactions
may be stated in the specific terms and conditions or in the
Merchant Instructions.
Transactions may only be executed in the domestic currency of
the Acquirer unless otherwise stated in the Merchant Agreement. The Merchant may not hand over Transactions that
contravene local or international laws or rules or in which a card
has been used to pay for bets in games or similar circumstances
or where the cardholder’s payment and/or obligation can be
regarded as being invalid by virtue of local law.
The Acquirer may at any time demand that the Merchant must
document that Transactions have been executed in accordance
with this Merchant Agreement or the Merchant Instructions. If
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
there is any doubt that this has not taken place, the Acquirer is
entitled, while waiting for documentation, to withhold settlement until the situation has been settled.
Should the Merchant have deliberately forced the use of a backup solution, settlement may be withheld if a dispute regarding
the Transaction arises.
The cardholder is only to be credited in connection with previously approved Transactions. The credit transaction is to be
executed using the same card and card number as the originally
approved debit transaction. The Merchant is not allowed to pay
cash in connection with any return of goods or other repayments
to the cardholder.
Unless otherwise specified in the specific terms and conditions,
a Merchant may only report Transactions under this Merchant
Agreement relating to the purchase of goods and services from
the Merchant and subsequent reversals relating to previous
Transactions. Therefore a Merchant may not report card transactions relating to the receiving of payment for goods and services
provided by other companies, as may occur with a distributor’s
handling. Nor may the Merchant report card transactions which
concern payment of existing debt or previously rejected checks.
After the Acquirer’s special review and prior consent, the Merchant may report Transactions in which the Merchant acts as
an agent or intermediary and thereby sells or conveys another
party’s goods or services or sells or conveys goods or services on
another party’s behalf, for example, trips or tickets to events.
In the cases where another party may perform the service that
the card transactions concern, the Merchant is responsible for
the service as if it had been performed by the Merchant itself
in accordance with the Merchant Agreement, for example, as
regards clause 7.3 Repayment obligation.
8.4.1 Unjustified card usage
If the Merchant knew or should have known that the cardholder
was not entitled to use the card, the card transaction must not
be executed.
In cases of doubt, the Merchant is to conduct more detailed
investigations, such as checks of identity of the cardholder, or
contacting the Acquirer before the Transaction is carried out.
This applies both in the case of ordinary electronic usage and
when using a backup solution.
8.5 Cross-border Acquiring
Unless otherwise agreed in the Merchant Agreement, the Merchant may only hand over Transactions relating to the purchase
of goods or services from the Merchant in the Acquirer’s country
of domicile. If the Merchant operates in multiple countries and
the Merchant and the Acquirer have so agreed, the Merchant
may hand over Transactions also from the other countries specified in the Merchant Agreement at any given time.
For the sake of clarity it is stated that the Merchants operating in cross-border sales must comply with all local laws,
regulations and rules in the markets they operate or enter.
Furthermore, the Merchant must comply with any regional rules
registered with the Card Schemes and informed by the Acquirer
or its service providers to the Merchant.
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8.6 Requirements for the Merchant’s services
The Merchant must accept all valid cards falling within the
scope of this Merchant Agreement as full settlement for the sale
of goods and services. The Merchant must accept cards for registration as electronic transactions (terminal) unless otherwise
stated.
The Merchant undertakes to handle card transactions in a
professional manner, to ensure that the personnel who handle
card transactions possess the necessary competence and comply with the terms and conditions of the Merchant Agreement,
including without limitation Merchant Instructions, and with
generally accepted practices in the industry.
The Merchant must show that it accepts cards by using stickers
in entrance areas and beside payment points and must state in
its advertising material the cards that can be used for payment.
The Merchant is entitled to use the Acquirer’s business name
and trademark, MasterCard’s and Visa’s trademarks and the
trademarks of other cards covered by this Merchant Agreement.
This is to be done in the way that the Acquirer instructs. The
Merchant is to remove all trademarks and other symbols and
identifiers of the International Card Organisations from all of its
material and its main Point-of-Sale and all Points-of-Sale and
Trading Sites immediately after the termination of the Merchant
Agreement. The Acquirer is to a reasonable extent provide the
Merchant with advertising and information material relating to
card payments.
The Merchant must comply with all laws to which it may be
subject where a failure to do so is reasonably likely to have a
material adverse effect on (i) the business, assets, financial
condition or the prospects of the Merchant and/or its group
taken as a whole, (ii) the ability of the Merchant to perform its
obligations under the Merchant Agreement or (iii) the validity or
enforceability of the Merchant Agreement or a part of it.
The Merchant has obtained, and must comply with, any material official approval, authorisation, consent, licence or the like
required or appropriate for (i) the carrying on by it of its business and (ii) the execution and performance of the Merchant
Agreement and any related document and the use of the service
under the Merchant Agreement.
The Merchant is to promptly inform the Acquirer of:
any changes to ownership factors, the board of directors,
general manager or contact information required for its
operations under the Merchant Agreement,
any material changes in its business,
and
any circumstances referred to in clause 14 which could
entitle the Acquirer to terminate the Merchant Agreement
with immediate effect.
Should the Merchant believe that the Acquirer has incorrect information about the Merchant, the Merchant must immediately
contact the Acquirer to rectify the matter.
8.7 Filing
The terminal records, signed receipts and merchant bookings
must be stored in accordance with the prevailing accounting
regulations, and according to PCI (see clause 10.1), and for a
minimum period of 18 months. If requested by the Acquirer,
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
purchase receipts, logs, vouchers and suchlike, or if necessary
copies of these, must be handed over to the Acquirer within five
(5) days of a request received. If the Merchant uses a service
provider to store documentation, the service provider must hand
over the documentation on behalf of the Merchant.
This obligation also applies after the Merchant Agreement has
expired. Upon request by the Acquirer, all information that has
been compiled during the last eighteen (18) months before
the Merchant Agreement has expired must be delivered to the
Acquirer.
8.8 Register of Point-of-Sale terminals
The Merchant is liable to have an up-to-date register of all its
Point-of-Sale terminals, and also the Point-of-Sale terminals
which have been taken out of use. The Acquirer may at any
time ask for such a register and it should at any time be up-todate.
8.9 Currency indemnity and waiver
The Merchant is obliged at the Acquirer’s request to indemnify the Acquirer against any cost or loss arisen out of the
conversion of a currency in the case of any sum due from the
Merchant has to be converted from the currency in which it is
payable into another currency for the purpose of filing a claim
against the Merchant or obtaining or enforcing an order, judgement or kind and there has been discrepancy between the rate
of exchange applied to the conversion and the rate of exchange
available to the Acquirer at the time the Acquirer receives the
sum.
The Merchant waives any right it may have in any jurisdiction
to pay any amount under the Merchant Agreement in a currency other than that in which it is expressed to be payable in
the Merchant Agreement.
9. Duty of confidentiality
The parties must not disclose any information regarding the
content of the Merchant Agreement or any information that the
parties gather in accordance with the rules and instructions of
the Merchant Agreement and which relates to the parties or
the cardholder. The information may only be disclosed to the
Acquirer, to a service provider engaged by the Acquirer, to a
company or other corporation based in Finland or abroad which
belongs to the same domestic or foreign group or economic interest consortium as the Acquirer at any given time or to a company or to some other company that is legally in such a position
that information can be disclosed to it and to service providers
engaged by the Merchant for handling card transactions. When
information is disclosed to the latter type of company, the duty
of confidentiality applies to such company as well. The obligation to maintain confidentiality in accordance with this provision
also applies after the Merchant Agreement has terminated.
The parties and their service providers must not process
personal data obtained from the Transaction apart from that
which is necessary for executing the Transaction. The information must not be used in selective marketing measures or other
contexts which contravene local rules and regulations.
10. Security requirements
The Acquirer may lay down requirements for the equipment
that the Merchant must have for authorisations, gathering and
storing information and handing over Transactions. In order
Page 8 of 23
to prevent information which is confidential according to the
clause regarding the duty of confidentiality becoming known to
unauthorised third parties, the Merchant must implement the
necessary security measures.
The Merchant must implement the security measures that the
Acquirer considers necessary.
10.1 Storage and securing of cardholder data and PCI regulation
The Merchant must at all times comply with the common
standard PCI (Payment Card Industry Data security standard)
and the regulations of Visa, MasterCard and/or the Acquirer for
secure trade and perform the required security checks. These
are required where Visa AIS is concerned (Account Information
Security) and are available at www.visa.com and where MasterCard is concerned SDP (Site Data Protection) and are available
at www.mastercardeurope.com.
More information about PCI can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
More detailed rules and instructions regarding what the
Merchant must apply may be stated in the specific terms and
conditions. The Acquirer is also entitled to issue security rules
and instructions in another manner. The rules and instructions
issued by the Acquirer separately or in the specific terms and
conditions can specify, for example, what kind of a technical
solution the Merchant needs to have for making authorisation,
collecting information, reporting or other measures of handling
the transaction data. All the physical and/or electronic storage
of cardholder data must take place in such a way and in such
a form that the data are inaccessible to unauthorised third parties. All the access rights must be logged and all users must be
assigned a separate user identity. All stored card numbers must
be encrypted and CVV2/CVC2 or other sensitive authorisation
data must under no circumstances be stored after an authorisation has been made.
The Merchant may not save the card verification value in the
chip application (iCVV/chip CVC) or the PIN verification value
in the magnetic stripe (PVV).
Should a Payment Service Provider (PSP) store, process and
transfer cardholder data on behalf of the Merchant, the Merchant undertakes to inform the Acquirer of this. The Merchant’s
service provider will in such cases be subject to the regulations
mentioned above.
The Merchant undertakes to immediately contact the Acquirer if
it suspects fraud, infringement into a system or another incident
that can constitute a security risk. Furthermore, the Acquirer is
entitled to delay the settlement of suspicious card transactions
until the incident has been investigated. In connection with
serious suspicions the Acquirer is entitled to temporarily stop all
card transactions.
Should there be reasonable grounds to suspect a breach of
security or that cardholder data has gone astray or the PCI rules
define that the Merchant has to go through the security scanning, the Merchant must by order of the Acquirer examine the
Merchant’s systems thoroughly, (“vulnerability scanning”). Such
an examination must be performed by a PCI-certified data security company. The Merchant must bear all the costs incurred in
connection with this.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Should the Merchant fail to comply with the PCI DSS requirements and the cardholder data goes astray, the Merchant will
be financially liable for the investigations, forensic costs and
any losses that arise as a result of misused cards. In addition,
the Acquirer may charge the Merchant for the fines that the
card companies impose on the Acquirer as a result of the Merchant’s incompliance with the PCI DSS requirements.
11. Liabilities
11.1 Liability for Damage
Each party is liable for damage caused to the other party by a
breach of the Merchant Agreement subject to the limitations set
out below in clause 11.2 and/or in the Merchant Agreement.
11.2 Limitation of liability
The parties are not liable for the other party’s losses which arise
from a force majeure, amendments to law, measures implemented by the authorities, acts of war, disruption of postal, telephone or data traffic or any other electronic communication networks, data transfer, automatic data processing, interruptions
of general transactions, strikes, boycotts, lockouts, blockades or
other similar circumstances. The reservation regarding strikes,
lockouts and blockades also applies if the parties themselves
are the objective of, or themselves initiate, such measures.
The parties are not liable for any indirect damage including,
without limitation, loss of profits or revenue, loss of savings or
business or loss of goodwill.
Limitations of liability do not apply to intentional acts or gross
negligence or breach of confidentiality obligations.
12. The validity, service utilisation and termination of the Merchant Agreement
The Merchant Agreement enters into force and the Merchant
may start to utilise the services provided under the Merchant
Agreement when the Merchant has signed the Merchant’s application for Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement, the Acquirer
has approved the Merchant’s application for Card Acquiring
Merchant Agreement and the Merchant has fulfilled all the
conditions precedents set out by the Acquirer for the utilisation
of the service.
The Merchant Agreement continues to be in force until further
notice. The Merchant Agreement may be terminated by either
party by giving a written notice at least three (3) months prior
to the termination.
The Acquirer may terminate the Merchant Agreement and block
the settlement account with immediate effect if one or more
of the following circumstances occur or the Acquirer suspects
might occur:
One or more items in the Merchant Agreement are breached
The Merchant has given incorrect or incomplete information
regarding its business.
The Merchant provides services or sells products on the
market in a way that in the opinion of the Acquirer is contrary to responsible business practice.
The Merchant’s area of operations has changed since the
Merchant Agreement was entered into and the Merchant
has not given notice of this or the Merchant has terminated
its business or changed its business materially in a way
which in the opinion of the Acquirer is inappropriate for
acquiring Transactions
Page 9 of 23
The Merchant sells or brokers goods or services, or performs other operations which contravene MasterCard’s,
Visa’s or another business partner’s regulations.
There is a reason to suspect that the Acquiring service is
being used or will be used for criminal activity or activities.
The Merchant acts or plans to act in a way that would
damage the reputation of the Acquirer or a third party.
The number or type of complaints deviates from that which
the Acquirer regards as normal or exceeds by 0.5%the
number of Transactions per Merchant ID in a month.
The Merchant has not fulfilled any or all of its payment
obligations towards the Acquirer when due, or the Acquirer
has right to cancel its commitment towards the Merchant,
under an agreement or another undertaking binding between the Acquirer and the Merchant or the Acquirer considers
that the Merchant’s liquidity is otherwise insufficient.
The Merchant offers goods or services that, in the Acquirer’s view, are of such a nature that they contravene the
Acquirer’s policy.
The Merchant has been engaged in unlawful or criminal
acts.
The Merchant has defaulted on a payment or committed
some other fundamental breach of the Merchant Agreement.
The Merchant’s settlement account is terminated.
The Merchant starts debt settlement proceedings, goes
into liquidation, petitions to be wound up or is forced into
bankruptcy.
Such termination must be given in writing.
The parties have the right to terminate the acquiring of a
certain type of card payments from the scope of the Merchant
Agreement.
Following the termination of the Merchant Agreement, wholly
or partially, the Merchant’s sales paid for through cards whose
acquiring has been terminated immediately cease.
When the Acquirer is entitled to terminate the Merchant Agreement with immediate effect or has reason to suspect that such
right to terminate exists, the Acquirer may refuse to acquire
reported Transactions.
If the Merchant Agreement is terminated, the Merchant must
hand back all the material and equipment it has received from
the Acquirer and immediately stop all sales using the cards
covered by this Merchant Agreement. After the termination, the
parties are still responsible for Transactions handled during the
validity of the Merchant Agreement. For example, the Acquirer
has the right to debit chargebacks and fees to the Merchant’s
account.
If the Merchant Agreement is terminated due to misuse as
defined by the International Card Organisations (e.g. misuse of
card data or suspected money laundering) or any other breach
of the Merchant Agreement by the Merchant or by any of the
Merchant’s service providers, the Acquirer is entitled to register
the reason for terminating the Merchant Agreement in the data
systems maintained by the International Card Organisations,
where data will be stored for five (5) years from the registration.
13. Intellectual Property Rights
All intellectual property rights to the Merchant services and the
service descriptions are the property of the Acquirer.
All trademark rights and all other intellectual property rights to
Visa and MasterCard trademarks and to other trademarks of
the International Card Organisations belong to the appropriate
International Card Organisation. The Merchant is not granted
any other rights to them, except for those expressly set out in
these rules.
14. Amendments to the terms and conditions in the Merchant
Agreement and other changes
The Acquirer is entitled to amend the Merchant Agreement and
its terms and conditions, such as these rules and charges, commissions and fees.
If an amendment to the Merchant Agreement or its terms and
conditions does not add the Merchant’s obligations or restrict
its rights, or is caused by an amendment to legislation or Card
Scheme rules or a decision of the authorities or is made for
critical security reasons, The Acquirer is entitled to announce
the amendment by publishing it on www.teller.com, at the
Merchant Portal or in another electronic channel provided or
accepted by the Acquirer, by sending the amendment to the
Merchant via e-mail or by post or they may be otherwise delivered to the Merchant. The amendment comes into effect at the
time announced by the Acquirer.
If an amendment to the Merchant Agreement or its terms and
conditions add the Merchant’s obligations or restricts its rights,
and is not caused by an amendment to legislation or Card
Scheme rules or a decision of the authorities or is not made for
critical security reasons, the Acquirer will inform the Merchant
of the amendment via Merchant Portal, or another electronic
channel provided or accepted by the Acquirer, via e-mail, by
post or in some other manner agreed separately either electronically or on paper. The amendment enters into force at the time
stated by the Acquirer; however, no earlier than one (1) month
from the sending of the notification. If the Merchant does not
wish to accept such an amendment, the Merchant may, by
giving at least fourteen (14) days prior to the amendment a
written notice to the Acquirer to terminate the Merchant Agreement with effect from the date when the amendment enters
into force.
Changes of charges, commissions and fees included in the tariff
of the Acquirer are published in the revised tariff. Such changes
take effect as of the date indicated by the Acquirer.
In addition, the Acquirer has the right to issue new or amend
the Merchant Instructions with effect from the time announced
by the Acquirer by publishing the Merchant Instructions via
the Merchant Portal or by sending them via e-mail or by post
or by informing the Merchant of setting them available to the
Merchant at the branches of the Acquirer or by delivering them
in some other manner either electronically or on paper.
A change of the settlement account must be documented in
writing to the Acquirer
15. Transfer
The Merchant may not transfer its rights or obligations pursuant to the Merchant Agreement to a third party without the
Acquirer’s prior written approval.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Page 10 of 23
The Acquirer is entitled to transfer its rights and obligations
pursuant to the Merchant Agreement to another company in the
Nets Group.
16. Notices
A written notification sent by post from the Acquirer is considered to have been delivered to the Merchant on the seventh
(7th) day after the notification was sent at the latest, provided
the letter is sent to the address which is stated in the Merchant
Agreement or which is otherwise known to the Acquirer.
An electronic notification by the Acquirer to the Merchant is
considered to have been delivered to the Merchant no later than
on the next day after the Acquirer has published the notification
or has delivered the notification to the Merchant by using at
least one of the agreed electronic means.
17. Dispute resolution
The parties must attempt to reach an amicable resolution of
any dispute relating to the Merchant Agreement. If the parties
fail to agree the disputes arising from the Merchant Agreement,
they are processed in the District Court of the capital of the
country where the Acquirer has its domicile unless otherwise
agreed.
The Merchant Agreement is governed by the law of the country
where the Acquirer has its domicile.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Page 11 of 23
Part B Country-specific rules and rules for domestic card
programmes
1. in Denmark
2. in Finland
3. in Norway
4. in Sweden
5. in Estonia
6. in Latvia
7. in Lithuania
8. in Poland
Part B – 2. Specific rules for payments in Finland and rules for
domestic card programmes
The Acquirer referred to in the Part A, B and C of these Rules of
Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement is Kortaccept Nordic AB,
Finnish Branch.
Kortaccept Nordic AB, Finnish Branch
Teollisuuskatu 21
FI - 00510 Helsinki
Tel +358 200 31000 (0200 31000)
Fax + 358 9-6964 9213 (09 6964 9213)
Mail [email protected]
Kortaccept Nordic AB, Finnish Branch has been registered in
the Trade Register maintained by the National Board of Patents
and Registration.
The business operations of Kortaccept Nordic AB, Finnish
Branch are supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory
Authority (Finansinspektionen, P.O. Box 7821, 10397, Stockholm, Sverige, www.fi.se).
Separate agreements are needed for routing of other card
scheme transactions like American Express (AmEx), Diners and
PLCs (private label cards).
Authorisations
In Finland the Card schemes set country-specific floor limits for
authorisations are followed. The value of the floor limit is the
maximum amount the Merchant can complete a Transaction
without online authorisation. A party that puts to use higher
floor limits than are set or refuses to authorise Transactions that
must be authorised has financial liability for possible disputable
Transactions.
by publishing the floor limits in the Merchant Instructions or
by informing the payment service provider of the floor limits
required for the POS terminal.
Cash withdrawals in connection with payments made with
cards
The Merchant may offer Cash-back to the cardholder in accordance with the Merchant Instructions. Cash withdrawals in
connection with Cash-back may only take place in conjunction
with face-to-face purchases and may not exceed the maximum
amount set out in the Merchant Instructions. The issuer may
decide to have lower Cash-back limits and also if Cash-back is
allowed for the card type. A Cash-back transaction is only made
in connection with a purchase and it has to be always online
authorised. The cardholder receipt must show the purchase
amount and Cash-back amount separately.
Surcharging
The Merchant is entitled to impose an additional charge on the
cardholder in connection with purchases made with a Visa or
MasterCard only to the extent that it is allowed according to the
Finnish law.
The Merchant must, in connection with the provision of a
service or an item which is paid by card, offer its customer
reasonable terms and conditions and ensure that the customer
is clearly informed regarding the terms and conditions for its
provision. The charge must be separately shown on the receipt.
Restricted loop cards
Issuers of cards may issue, in accordance with the Card
Scheme rules, cards that only Merchants belonging to a
certain business code of the merchants (MCC) may accept for
payment. These cards may be destined to be used only for payment of a certain goods and/or with a value of certain
minimum/maximum amount e.g. relating to fringe benefits
in accordance with the tax regulation. The Merchant accepting restricted loop cards for payment of certain fringe benefits
must comply with the laws and regulations as well as with the
decisions and instructions of the Finnish Tax Administration
regarding fringe benefits in force at any given time.
The published floor limits set up to the POS terminal
Apply to EMV chip transactions to determine which Trans
actions may be authorised offline,
Apply to all Transactions completed at a
Merchant that does not have an online-capable Point-of-
Sale (POS) terminal,
Do not apply to any magnetic stripe-read
face-to-face transaction completed at an online-capable
terminal (floor limit is zero), and
Do not apply to any non–face-to-face transactions e.g. unattended terminals or eCommerce (floor limit is zero).
Floor limit values are assigned according to the business
code of the Merchant (MCC), the transaction category code
(TCC), and the geographical location. The Acquirer informs
the Merchant of the floor limits in force at any given time
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Page 12 of 23
Part C – Sector- and/or service-specific rules
This part contains a specific extract of the terms and conditions
applicable to
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
standard payments (POS)
mail orders and telephone orders (MO/TO)
online shopping, eCommerce
recurring transactions
Quasi Cash
unattended payment terminals or cardholder-activated
terminals (CAT)
7. hotels
8. car rentals
9. contactless payments
The specific rules apply in addition to the general rules. In the
case of any conflict between the specific rules and the general
rules, the specific rules prevail.
1. Specific terms and conditions applicable to standard
payments (POS)
1.1 Verification
If the chip on the card is read without any participation of the
Merchant and the cardholder authorises the transaction with
PIN, or if the chip is read, at the option of the cardholder, using
the contactless interface of the terminal for a transaction under
the CVM-required limit, the Merchant does not need to perform
the card verification listed below. This is also applicable if the
information on the card is read without any participation of the
Merchant and the card does not demand any further measures
than that the information is read.
In connection with purchases, the Merchant must perform the
following verifications:
1.1.1 Card verification
The Merchant must through ocular inspection of the card
ensure that:
the card number, name of the cardholder, and term of validity are stated on the card
the card does not show any signs of alteration
the card bears the cardholder’s signature
the term of validity on the card has not expired
the first four digits of the card number are identical to the
four digits printed on the card directly under or above the
card number. In the case the digits are not identical; the
Merchant must retain the card and contact the Acquirer for
further instructions.
the card number on the sales slip is identical to the card
number on the card, and
the term of validity on the sales slip is identical to the term
of validity stated on the card.
1.1.2 Customer identification
The cardholder must approve that the agreed amount will be
debited to the card either through PIN or signature. The Merchant ensures that it is actually the cardholder who approves
that the amount will be debited to the card by:
(A) Verification with PIN
In order for PIN codes to be accepted in connection with customer identification, the card number must be read mechanically.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
PIN codes are entered using a PIN keypad approved by the
Acquirer. The PIN keypad may only be used at the Merchant
where the original installation took place.
The cardholder may at no time be requested to enter his or
her PIN code where PIN usage is not permitted for the card in
question. In connection with return transactions, PIN numbers
must not be used.
(B) Verification with signature
The customer’s signature on the invoice or sales slip must be
compared with the signature on the card and with the signature
on the valid, official identity verification document issued by
the authorities. In addition, the Merchant must verify that the
photo on the ID matches the customer. Where the signatures
or the photo do not match, the card must not be accepted for
payment.
1.2 Collection of information
The following information must be collected by the card being
read electronically in a terminal or other solution approved by
the Acquirer and distributed to the Acquirer:

cardholder’s name
cardholder’s address (delivery name and address)
name of the person making the order
card number
card type
card’s expiry date
card’s control digits (CVC2/CVV2), i.e.
the last three digits on the signature
panel on the back of the card
cardholder’s signature (in the case of mail orders)
transaction currency
transaction date
authorisation code
order date
shipping date
shipping address
description of the merchandise and services
total amount of the order
order confirmation number
information on whether the cardholder wishes the Value
Added Tax (VAT) amount to be specified
Merchant name
Merchant location
online address, if any
itemised charges if any
2.3 Authorisation
The Merchant must obtain authorisation for the order’s total
amount and check the card’s control digits (CVV2/CVC2). This
is done by stating the control digits in the authorisation request.
The authorisation is carried out by the Merchant’s approved
electronic system contacting the Acquirer or the Acquirer’s
service provider.
If the authorisation and/or control digits are not approved by the
authorisation request, the Transaction must not be carried out.
This section is applicable to Visa Transactions: If more than
seven (7) days elapse between the date when the authorisation
is made and the date when the goods are sent and the amount
is debited, the Merchant must obtain a renewed authorisation
for the total amount. If this renewed authorisation is not agreed
on, the cardholder must not be debited and the goods must not
be delivered.
This section is applicable to MasterCard Transactions: If the
transaction might not be completed for a reason such as the
goods ordered being later found out to be out of stock, the Merchant must obtain a pre-authorisation for the agreed amount
and later obtain an additional authorisation to get the duration
of the payment guarantee period of seven (7) days extended, if
necessary. If the cardholder is debited after the payment guarantee period has expired the transaction may be charged back
also on the basis that the card account is permanently closed.
2.4 Requirements for the Merchant’s services
The Merchant is to comply with the legislation in force governing sales and marketing via distance selling.
Immediately following the order, the Merchant must send the
cardholder a written confirmation of the order and inform the
cardholder of any cancellation conditions.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
The ordered goods may not be sent before an authorisation in
accordance with clause 3 has been made. Once the Transaction
has been authorised, the goods are to be sent within seven (7)
days unless any other agreement regarding delivery has been
entered into in writing with the cardholder.
2.5 Delivery of Transactions
Transactions may not be handed over until the goods have
been sent off to the cardholder. When the goods are sent, the
Transaction is to be handed over by the deadlines stated in the
general terms and conditions.
With mail order, telephone order (MOTO) hosted with an
internet Payment Service Provider (iPSP), connected to fraud
monitoring, the Merchant is always responsible for fraud and
risk if not 3D Secure.
3. Specific terms and conditions applicable to online shopping
in eCommerce environment
3.1 A general description of online payments using MasterCard
SecureCode/Verified by Visa.
With MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa, the Merchant
may accept card payments via the Internet and verify a transaction with it (verification service). The Merchant must have
installed a payment solution that contains MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa in order to be able to execute Transactions.
The MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa functionality
applies to cards issued within the MasterCard and Visa EU
regions; acceptance of cards issued outside these regions is not
covered by a corresponding security level and complaint rules.
The Merchant must use software for an online shopping
-payment solution in accordance with an agreement with the
Acquirer. This software is not covered by this Merchant Agreement.
3.2 Guaranteed payment
Transactions effected using Visa cards and MasterCards over
the Internet are in most cases subject to guaranteed payment
(see clause 7.3 Repayment obligation of the General rules relating to Merchant Agreement). However, Transactions made using
Visa Commercial Cards and MasterCard Commercial Cards
issued outside Europe are not subject to guaranteed payment.
3.3. ID check via an issuing bank
Once a card number has been registered by the Merchant or
its Payment Service Provider, an enquiry will immediately be
sent to Visa’s or MasterCard’s register of card issuers and card
number series which are included in 3D Secure. The enquiry
must be sent in the form and manner defined by the Acquirer
or a service company engaged by the Acquirer. Where the
cardholder’s card is included in 3D Secure, he or she is linked
to the card issuing bank’s website. The Merchant assists in
such linking service in the manner defined by the Acquirer or a
service company engaged by the Acquirer.
Once the customer has successfully passed the ID check by the
issuing bank, he or she is then linked back to the Merchant’s
website. The Merchant collects CAVV/AAV from Cardholder Web
interface and this value must be included in the Transaction
according to the 3D Secure specification.
In order to ensure that the verification against Visa’s and
MasterCard’s register and the following linking, etc., takes place
Page 14 of 23
correctly, the Merchant uses software stipulated by the Acquirer
or a service company engaged by the Acquirer. Such software is
not covered by this agreement.
Electronic Commerce Indicator (ECI) value must be shown in
a request for authorisation. The AVV/CAVV value must also be
registered together with the request for authorisation.
3.4 Permitted Transactions
The Merchant must check the card’s control digits (CVV2/
CVC2). This is done by the control digits being stated when the
cardholder orders goods or services. This check must produce
an approved result.
A Transaction pursuant to this Merchant Agreement may only
be executed if:
the card in question is covered by MasterCard SecureCode/
Verified by Visa and the cardholder has been successfully
identified by the card issuer or
the card in question is not covered by MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa.
3.5 Information to be obtained
The following information is to be obtained by the Merchant
with a system approved by the Acquirer:
From the cardholder via the Internet

card number
card’s validity period
trademark with which the card is associated
cardholder’s name and address
Address Verification Value (AVV) or
Cardholder Authentication Verification
Value (CAVV) that the cardholder is given after the attempt
of identification with the card issuer.
shipping address
total transaction amount
currency in which the purchase has been
made
transaction date
transaction’s reference number
buyer’s name
message confirming the Transaction as acard transaction
goods or services covered by the purchase
price for each article or service
VAT share of the total amount and the basis for the VAT
itemised charges
From the Merchant’s technical system:
the cardholder’s IP address
Merchant’s name
Merchant’s location
From the institution that authorises the payment:
authorisation date
authorisation code
ECI value
The transaction amount and a copy of the cardholder’s
receipt(s) are to be obtained from the Merchant’s own system.
The information obtained is to be shown in a data medium or
printout from such a medium.
The Acquirer must upon request have access to the MPI-log
(3D Secure log).
3.6 Authorisation
All card transactions must be authorised. The authorisation
must take place electronically online in connection with the
cardholder entering his or her card number on the Merchant’s
website in the form stipulated by the Acquirer. The relevant
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
This section is applicable to Visa Transactions: If more than
seven (7) days elapse between the date when the authorisation has been made and the date when the goods are sent and
the amount is debited, the Merchant must obtain a renewed
authorisation for the total amount. If this renewed authorisation
is not agreed on, the cardholder must not be debited and the
goods must not be delivered.
This section is applicable to MasterCard Transactions: If the
transaction might not be completed for a reason such as the
goods ordered being later found out to be out of stock, the Merchant must obtain a pre-authorisation for the agreed amount
and later obtain an additional authorisation to get the duration
of the payment guarantee period extended, if necessary. As
a rule, the payment guarantee period of pre-authorisations of
MasterCards is thirty (30) days, save for pre-authorisations of
Maestro Transactions. The payment guarantee period of both
pre- and final authorisations of Maestro Transactions is seven
(7) days. If the cardholder is debited after the payment guarantee period has expired the transaction may be charged back
also on the basis that the card account is permanently closed.
3.7 Requirements for the Merchant’s services
The Merchant is to comply with the legislation in force governing sales and marketing via distance selling.
The Merchant is to design its online shop in such a way that
complaints are avoided. The online shop must contain information on how to contact the Merchant for complaints or for other
reasons. The online shop must be approved by the Acquirer
before it is opened. Similarly, all changes must be approved by
the Acquirer before the online shop can be reopened.
The Merchant’s website must state that the Merchant is linked
to the MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa services. In
addition, the Merchant must meet the MasterCard SPA/UCAF
requirements. The Merchant must therefore create UCAF Hidden Fields. These fields must be located and designed as the
Acquirer or the Acquirer’s service provider states.
The cardholder must confirm having read the terms and conditions when making the order.
The Merchant must comply with MasterCard’s and Visa’s rules
in force for safe e-commerce, including, but not limited to, PCI
DSS.
When a card transaction is carried out online, the cardholder is
to be given an electronic receipt for the Transaction. The following information must be stated on the receipt:

Merchant’s Internet address, URL
Merchant’s name
Merchant’s organisation number
Merchant’s address
Merchant’s telephone number
card’s validity period
Page 15 of 23

cardholder’s name
total transaction amount
currency in which the purchase has beenmade
transaction date
transaction’s reference number
buyer’s name
authorisation code
message confirming the transaction as a card transaction
goods or services covered by the purchase
price for each article or service
itemised charges, if any
VAT share of the total amount and the basis for the VAT.
3.8 Delivery of Transactions
Transactions may not be handed over until the goods have
been sent off to the cardholder. When the goods are sent, the
Transaction is to be handed over by the deadlines stated in the
general terms and conditions. When handing over a Transaction, the AAV/CAVV and ECI values are to be sent along with
the notification.
3.9 Security requirements
The Merchant’s system must at least be able to handle transaction encryption with 128 bits SSL or similar protection factor.
Customer-related information in the systems must be protected
against access and changes by unauthorised third parties, both
employees of the Merchant and others.
The updating of a system functionality using open networks
must be authenticated in the system using digital signatures or
suchlike.
Refer also to clause 10 of the general terms and conditions.
4. Specific terms and conditions applicable to recurring trans
actions
If the first payment is an online payment, special conditions
applicable to online shopping also apply. If the first payment
is a mail order payment, special conditions applicable to mail
orders also apply.
the payment criteria
how the order is to be renewed and cancelled.
The Recurring Services Merchant must retain the cardholder’s
permission in a format, such as an e-mail, other electronic
record or paper, for the duration of the recurring transactions,
and provide it upon the issuer’s request.
4.2 Authorisation and permitted Transactions
All Transactions must be authorised online. Transactions with
Electron, Maestro and VPay are not permitted.
The first payment must include a check of the MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa (for online payments) or CVC2/CVV2
(for mail order payments). If the check is not successful, the
Transactions may not be carried out.
When a card has expired and the cardholder provides information on his or her renewed card, a new first Transaction using
this new card must be authorised, including a check of the
MasterCard SecureCode/Verified by Visa (for online payments)
or CVC2/CVV2 (for mail order payments).
The subsequent Transactions may be executed without these
verifications.
All authorisation requests must contain the relevant indicator
for recurring Transactions.
4.3 Complaints
Complaints about the first Transaction (in the case of online
payments) are to be dealt with in the same way as for online
shopping and complaints about the first Transaction (in the case
of mail orders) and all subsequent Transactions are to be dealt
with as for mail orders.
4.4 Handing over of transactions
All Transactions must contain the relevant indicator for recurring
payments. The Transactions must also contain contact information on the Merchant in the field of the Merchant’s name or
city address to make it easy for the cardholder to contact the
Merchant, if necessary.
The Merchant must clearly state on its website and in its
mail-order information that the cardholder is entering into an
agreement regarding recurring payments and that this is not
just a one-time purchase. If the cardholder withdraws from this
agreement, the Merchant’s right to debit the cardholder’s card
number ends.
5. Specific terms and conditions applicable to Quasi-Cash
5.1 Permitted Transactions
The Merchant must have its website and the terms and conditions governing recurring payments that the cardholder agrees
on with the Merchant approved by the Acquirer. The Merchant
must also have its recurring payment solution approved by the
Acquirer before being used.
5.2 Verification
The Merchant is not entitled to have guaranteed payments for
recurring payments.
4.1 Requirements for the cardholder’s order
In addition to information regarding online shopping orders and
mail orders, the order must also contain information stating:
the order is an order involving recurring payments
the payment period and frequency of the
payments (the frequency between the transactions cannot
be more than twelve (12) months).
the duration of the order
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Cash-back is not permitted in connection with a Quasi-Cash
transaction. Reversals are not permitted. Transactions with
Maestro are only permitted if the cardholder is verified by using
PIN.
In connection with purchases, the Merchant must perform the
following verifications:
5.2.1 Card verification
The Merchant must through ocular inspection of the card
ensure that:
the card number, name of the cardholder, and term of validity are stated on the card
the card does not show any signs of alteration
the card bears the cardholder’s signature
the term of validity on the card has not expired
the first four digits of the card number are identical to the
four digits are printed on the card directly under or above
the card number.
the first four digits are also stated on the sales slip.
Page 16 of 23
In the case the digits are not identical; the Merchant should
retain the card and contact the Acquirer for further instructions.
the card number on the sales slip is identical to the card
number on the card,
and
the term of validity on the sales slip is identical to the term
of validity stated on the card.
5.2.2 Customer identification
The cardholder must always approve that the agreed amount
will be charged to the card by authorising the Transaction by
PIN or by signing the invoice/sales slip. The merchant must
ensure that it is actually the cardholder who approves that the
amount will be charged to the card by verifying the cardholder’s
signature according to this routine:
(A) Verification with PIN
When a PIN code is entered in connection with customer identification, the card number must be read electronically.
PIN codes are entered using a PIN keypad approved by the
Acquirer. The PIN keypad may only be used at the Merchant
where the original installation took place.
(B) Verification with signature
The customer’s signature on the invoice/sales slip must be
compared with the signature on the card and with the signature on the ID and they must be similar. The Merchant must
request the personal identification of the cardholder in the form
of a valid, official identity verification document issued by the
authorities (for example, a passport, an identification document,
or a driving licence) according to law in force. In addition, the
Merchant must verify that the photo on the ID matches the
customer. Where the ID does not match the customer, the card
must not be accepted for payment.
The Merchant must verify that the ID does not show signs of
alteration. Information regarding the type and number of ID
must be stated on the sales slip. These controls must always be
performed, even if the cardholder verifies the purchase by PIN
or if the card is issued outside the country where the Transactions take place.
The Merchant must otherwise at all times comply with the rules
and instructions regarding identification issued by governmental
authorities, or set out in the agreements entered into between
the Acquirer and the Merchant.
5.3 Collection of information
The following information must be collected by the card being
read electronically in a terminal or other solution approved by
the Acquirer and distributed to the Acquirer:

Merchant’s name
address with country code
transaction type (purchase or returned purchase)
trademark (Visa, MasterCard, Maestro)
acquirer
card number
card expiry (Valid through)
transaction date and time for authorisation
transaction amount
transaction currency
authorisation code
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
TVR, AID and TSI
reference number
Otherwise the collected transactions follow the specification
provided by the Acquirer or the Acquirer’s service provider.
5.4 Authorisation
All card transactions must be authorised through technical
equipment. The floor limit is zero (0). The authorisation must
contain information regarding the card number, card expiry,
amount and the specific MCC code given by the Acquirer. The
authorisation for a specific purchase is approved when the Merchant receives the control number of the authorisation.
Manually registered Transactions are not permitted. If there is
something wrong with the card or the terminal solution or other
solution used and the card cannot be read electronically, the
Transaction must not be performed.
5.5 Handing over the Transactions
The Merchant must use the MCC code given by the Acquirer
when reporting the Transactions.
6. Specific terms and conditions applicable to unattended
payment terminals and cardholder-activated terminals (CAT)
An unattended payment terminal or a cardholder-activated
terminal (CAT) Transaction occurs at an unattended electronic
POS terminal or by means of a cardholder-controlled electronic
device. Since no Merchant representative is present at the time
of the Transaction, it is a non-face-to-face Transaction.
6.1 Types of automatic machines
Acceptance in accordance with this Merchant Agreement
includes the different types of automatic machines, e.g. ticket
dispensing machines, vending machines, automated fuel dispensers, toll booths and parking meters.
A self-service terminal with online authorisation capability is an
unattended terminal where the Transactions are authorised.
A self-service terminal with offline authorisation capability is an
unattended terminal where the Transactions remaining below
the floor limit may be authorised offline through the EMV chip
with or without CVM.
The automatic machines or terminals must be approved by
the Acquirer or by a company that the Acquirer has approved
before they can be used.
6.2 Permitted Transactions
A card transaction that is carried out using an automatic machine must not exceed the limits set out for certain terminals
and advised in the Merchant Instructions.
Card transactions which exceed this amount may be rejected by
the card issuer if there are valid reasons for doing so.
At certain cardholder-activated terminals
(CATs), if both the card and the CAT support chip technology,
the Transaction may only be completed using the chip. A technical fallback is not permitted at such terminals.
6.3 Authorisation
All card transactions must be authorised through technical
equipment. The floor limit is zero (0) if nothing else is laid
down in the Merchant Agreement or stated in the countryspecific rules or in the Merchant Instructions.
Page 17 of 23
All intended Transactions at unattended fuel dispensers must
be pre-authorised for the maximum amount determined by
the cardholder prior to the refill unless otherwise stated in the
Merchant Instructions. The pre-authorisation response may be
for the full maximum amount requested as a pre-authorisation
or for a lesser amount. The final Transaction is guaranteed only
up to the pre-authorised amount for a guarantee period of seven
(7) days. If the final amount of the Transaction after the refill
is less than the pre-authorised amount, the excess amount of
the pre-authorisation must be reversed immediately. Further
terms and conditions applicable to authorisations and authorisation reversals at unattended fuel dispensers may be set out
in the Merchant Instructions. However all Electron and Maestro
Transactions at unattended fuel dispensers must always be preauthorised and the final Transaction amount may not exceed
the level of the obtained authorisation.
Chip-initiated transactions may be approved offline, provided
that the transaction amount does not exceed the floor limit and
the issuer has personalised the card to allow this. A floor limit
set out in the Merchant Instructions, or its equivalent in local
currency, will apply to chip- initiated transactions at an unattended terminal (UAT) within Visa Europe unless the market
has a different floor limit.
6.4 Requirements for the Merchant
In order to limit the risk of misuse, the Merchant must secure
the automatic machine and its environment in the best way
possible. The cardholder must be able to choose to receive a
receipt for the Transaction. The receipt must state the following
information:

Merchant’s name
Merchant’s organisation number
location of the automatic machine
time and date of the transaction
masked card number
currency in which total amount of the transaction has been
carried out
transaction’s reference number
authorisation reference
VAT percentage of the total amount.
7. Specific terms and conditions applicable to hotels and other
lodging services
In this clause 7, a reference to a hotel shall be read and construed as a reference also to other lodging services.
7.1 Guaranteed reservation
When the cardholder contacts a hotel to make a booking, the
hotel must
1. obtain information on the card number, the card’s expiry
date, the cardholder’s name as stated on the card and the
cardholder’s address
2. inform the cardholder about: the price of the room
(including taxes and charges), the hotel’s address and the
booking number for the booking, and advise the cardholder
to retain this number
3. inform the cardholder about: the hotel’s cancellation rules,
including that the room is booked until the check-out time
on the day after arrival, that cancellation must take place
by 6pm (in the hotel’s time zone) on the expected arrival
date and that, if the room is not used or cancelled, the
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
cardholder will be debited for one night’s stay (“no show”).
This is not applicable if the cardholder made the hotel
reservation within 72 hours before the supposed arrival.
If the cardholder wishes to receive a written confirmation of the
order, the hotel must include in it all the information stated in
sections 1-3 above (only the last four digits of the card number
are to be shown).
7.2 Cancellation
If the cardholder cancels the booking, the hotel must

give the cardholder a cancellation number
advise the cardholder to retain the cancellation number
enter the cancellation in the hotel’s booking system
send the cardholder a written confirmation of the cancellation that contains the card number (only the last four digits),
the expiry date, the cardholder’s name taken from the card
and the cancellation number.
The hotel or its third-party booking agent must not require a
cancellation notification more than 72 hours before the scheduled arrival time and date agreed at the time of the booking.
If the cardholder makes the reservation within 72 hours of the
scheduled date, the cancellation deadline must be no earlier
than 6pm (local time) on the arrival date.
7.3 “No show”
If the cardholder does not arrive at the hotel and has not
cancelled the booking, the hotel may debit the cardholder for
one night’s stay and write “no show/guaranteed reservation” in
the signature area on the copy of the receipt. The authorisation
and handing over of “no show” Transactions and the storage of
receipts must take place in accordance with the general terms
and conditions applicable to this agreement.
If a card transaction that has been debited for a “no show”
transaction is unknown to the issuer and the issuer charges
back the transaction, the hotel will be debited with the amount
of the Transaction.
The hotel must store the original booking information and room
number for 18 months after the date when the Transaction is
handed over; see clause 11 of the general terms and conditions.
When a cardholder uses the Hotel Reservation Service, and
does not claim or cancel the accommodation, the hotel or its
third-party booking agent must complete a transaction receipt
that must contain the following:

amount of one night’s lodging plus applicable tax
cardholder’s name
account number
card expiry date and
the words “No-Show” on the signature line of the Transaction receipt.
7.4 Overbooking
If the hotel does not have a room available for the cardholder
when the cardholder arrives, the hotel must at no extra cost to
the cardholder
assign the cardholder a comparable room at another hotel
arrange transport to this hotel
allow a long distance phone call in accordance with the
cardholder’s wishes
Page 18 of 23
pass on all messages and phone calls to the cardholder to
this hotel.
7.5 Booking via an agent
The hotel is responsible for bookings that take place via
agencies/agents. It is the agent’s responsibility to ensure that
cancellations which have been reported to agents are passed on
to the hotel.
7.6 Authorisation
When the cardholder arrives at the hotel, the hotel and the
cardholder are to fill in and sign a registration form. In addition to other information, the form must state the subsequent
amounts that the hotel may debit after the cardholder has left,
and the cardholder’s agreement to be willing to accept these.
7.6.1 Further terms and conditions applicable to the authorisations of Visa Transactions
When authorising a Transaction to be made using a Visa payment card, the hotel is to calculate the estimated cost of the
cardholder’s stay based on the duration of the stay and the
room price and obtain authorisation for this amount on the terminal. The hotel must inform the cardholder of the size of the
authorised amount. The terminal receipt is to be stored together
with the registration form during the cardholder’s stay.
If the amount debited to the cardholder during the stay exceeds
the authorised amount by more than 15%, the hotel is to
obtain authorisation for the estimated additional amount. This
may take place several times during the stay. The terminal receipt for the additional authorisation is to be kept together with
the registration form.
When the cardholder is leaving the hotel, the cardholder’s bill is
to be made ready and a Transaction involving the total amount
is to be carried out using the terminal. The cardholder is to key
in his or her PIN code or sign the terminal receipt or use other
approved cardholder verification method (CVM). If the total
amount exceeds the already authorised amount(s) by less than
15%, the hotel does not have to obtain any further authorisation (save for payments with Electron). If the total amount exceeds the already authorised amount(s) by more than 15%, the
excess amount must be authorised. Electron Transactions must
always be authorised for the final amount. The Transaction is to
be handed over to the Acquirer in accordance with the general
terms and conditions.
If the authorised amounts are larger than the bill’s total
amount, the hotel must reverse the the excess amount.
7.6.2 Further terms and conditions applicable to the authorisations of MasterCard Transactions
When authorising a Transaction to be made using a MasterCard
payment card, the hotel is to calculate the estimated cost of
the cardholder’s stay based on the duration of the stay and the
room price and obtain a pre-authorisation for this amount on
the terminal. The hotel must inform the cardholder of the size of
the pre-authorised amount. The terminal receipt is to be stored
together with the registration form during the cardholder’s stay.
Maestro payment cards may not be used to pre-authorise a hotel stay. Authorisations of Maestro Transactions must be made
as final authorisations by using either pre-payment of hotel stay
or final payment once the amount is known.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
If the amount debited to the cardholder during the stay exceeds
the pre-authorised amount, the hotel is to obtain an additional
pre-authorisation for the estimated additional amount. This may
take place several times during the stay. The terminal receipt
for the additional authorisation is to be kept together with the
registration form.
When the cardholder is leaving the hotel, the cardholder’s bill is
to be made ready and a Transaction involving the total amount
is to be carried out using the terminal. The cardholder is to key
in his or her PIN code or sign the terminal receipt or use other
approved cardholder verification method (CVM). If the total
amount exceeds the already pre-authorised amount(s), the excess amount must be authorised with a final authorisation. The
Transaction is to be handed over to the Acquirer in accordance
with the general terms and conditions.
If the authorised amounts are larger than the bill’s total
amount, the hotel must reverse the excess amount.
7.6.3 Interim billing
For stays lasting more than fourteen (14) days, the hotel is advised to prepare the cardholder’s bill after fourteen (14) days,
carry out a Transaction for this amount and send the Transaction to the Acquirer. Thereafter, a new 14-day bill period is to
be started as stated above.
7.7 Express checkout
Upon arrival at the hotel
If the hotel allows an express checkout, the cardholder must
fill in and sign an express checkout form, which can be part
of the hotel’s registration form, for example. This form must
as a minimum state the hotel’s name, address and telephone
number, the cardholder’s name and address, room number and
signature, and card number. The form must clearly state that
the cardholder is asking the hotel to debit the cardholder’s card
number for the final hotel bill without the cardholder having to
sign for this.
The hotel must read the chip in a terminal and carry out the
normal authorisation procedure.
Upon departure from the hotel
The hotel is to prepare the cardholder’s bill for the stay and
carry out a terminal transaction for the total amount.
This section is applicable to Visa Transactions: If the total
amount is less than 15% more than the already authorised
amount(s), the hotel does not have to obtain any further authorisation. If the total amount exceeds the already authorised
amount(s) by more than 15%, authorisation must be obtained
for the excess amount. This section is applicable to MasterCard Transactions: If the
total amount exceeds the pre-authorised amount(s), a final
authorisation must be obtained for the excess amount.
The words “signature on file – express checkout” if it is a
MasterCard trademark and Priority Check Out if it is a Visa
trademark must be noted in the terminal receipt’s signature
area. The Transaction is to be handed over to the Acquirer in
accordance with the general terms and conditions.
The hotel must send a copy of the hotel bill, terminal receipt
and express checkout form to the cardholder within three days
of the cardholder checking out of the hotel. The hotel must
Page 19 of 23
store all documentation for eighteen (18) months and send a
copy to the Acquirer, if requested.
7.8 Subsequent debiting of the cardholder
If stated on the registration form, the hotel may subsequently
debit the cardholder for his or her use of room service, the telephone, minibar and restaurant. The hotel cannot subsequently
debit the cardholder for defects in, damage to or thefts from the
room.
The subsequent debiting is to be carried out as a terminal transaction and the words “signature on file” are to be noted in the
receipt’s signature area. The Transaction must be authorised.
A copy of the terminal receipt and a bill specifying the items
subsequently debited are to be sent to the cardholder.
8. Specific terms and conditions applicable to car rental
8.1 Requirements stipulated for the Merchant
The Merchant needs to send a written booking confirmation to
the cardholder via e-mail or by letter.
When the cardholder collects the car/vehicle, the Merchant
and the cardholder must fill in and sign a rental contract. In
addition to other information, the rental contract must state the
amounts that the Merchant may debit after the cardholder has
returned the car and the cardholder’s acceptance of the fact
that amounts may be subsequently debited.
Subsequent debits may cover fuel, traffic fines, tolls and damage to the car.
If the Merchant allows an express return, the cardholder is to
fill in and sign an express return form, which can be part of the
rental contract, for example.
The Merchant should ensure that all the terms and conditions
relating to subsequent debits and express returns are clearly
stated to the cardholder and shown on the same side of the
form as the cardholder’s signature.
8.1.1 Further terms and conditions applicable to the authorisations of Visa Transactions
The Merchant is to calculate the estimated amount for the
cardholder’s rental period based on the length of the period, the
rental price and possibly kilometre price and obtain authorisation for this amount via the terminal. No amount for possible
damage to the car or for a collision/loss damage waiver is to be
included in the authorised total amount. The Merchant must
inform the cardholder of the size of the authorised amount. The
terminal receipt is to be stored together with the rental contract
during the rental period.
If the amount charged to the cardholder during the rental
period exceeds the authorised amount by more than 15%, the
Merchant is to obtain authorisation for the estimated additional
amount. This may take place several times during the rental
period. The terminal receipt for an additional authorisation is to
be stored together with the rental contract.
8.1.2 Further terms and conditions applicable to the authorisations of MasterCard Transactions
The Merchant is to calculate the estimated amount for the
cardholder’s rental period based on the length of the period,
the rental price and possibly kilometre price and obtain a preauthorisation for this amount via the terminal. No amount for
possible damage to the car or for a collision/loss damage waiver
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
is to be included in the authorised total amount. The Merchant
must inform the cardholder of the size of the pre-authorised
amount. The terminal receipt is to be stored together with the
rental contract during the rental period. Maestro payment cards
may not be used to pre-authorise a car rental. Authorisations of
Maestro Transactions must be made as final authorisations by
using either pre-payment of car rental or final payment once the
amount is known.
If the amount charged to the cardholder during the rental period
exceeds the pre-authorised amount, the Merchant is to obtain
an additional pre-authorisation for the estimated additional
amount. This may take place several times during the rental
period. The terminal receipt for an additional pre-authorisation
is to be stored together with the rental contract.
8.1.3 Damages
When the car is returned, the cardholder’s bill is to be prepared
and a Transaction for the total amount is to be carried out in the
terminal. If the cardholder has agreed to a collision/loss damage
waiver (CDW/LDW) in the rental contract and damage has been
incurred, the Merchant may include the collision/loss damage
waiver amount in the total amount for the rental period.
If the cardholder has not agreed to a collision/loss damage
waiver, the amount relating to the damage must only be debited
to the cardholder’s bill if the cardholder has accepted this in
the rental contract and the cardholder has agreed to the damage amount.
This section is applicable to Visa Transactions: Debits relating
to damage must be authorised and carried out as a separate
terminal transaction using the cardholder’s PIN code or signature or other approved cardholder verification method (CVM).
The Merchant must give the cardholder a credible estimate on
the cost of the repair work and tell him/her that the amount
may be altered in connection with the repair work. The final
cost of the repair must not exceed this estimate by more than
15%. If the final amount is less than the estimated amount, the
Merchant must reverse the excess authorisation amount. This
Transaction must be handed over to the Acquirer within thirty
(30) days of the previous Transaction to which it is related.
The cardholder keys in his or her PIN code or signs the terminal
receipt or uses some other approved cardholder verification
method (CVM). If the total amount exceeds the already authorised amount(s) by less than 15%, the Merchant does not have
to obtain any further authorisation. If the total amount exceeds
the already authorised amount(s) by more than 15%, authorisation must be obtained for the excess amount. The Transaction
must be handed over to the Acquirer in accordance with the
general terms and conditions.
This section is applicable to MasterCard Transactions: Debits
relating to damage must be pre-authorised and carried out as
separate terminal transactions using the cardholder’s PIN code
or signature or other approved cardholder verification method
(CVM). The Merchant must give the cardholder a credible estimate on the cost of the repair work and tell him or her that the
amount may be altered in connection with the repair work. The
final cost of the repair may not exceed this estimate. If the final
amount is less than the estimated amount, the Merchant must
reverse the excess authorisation amount.
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The cardholder keys in his or her PIN code or signs the terminal
receipt or uses some other approved cardholder verification
method
(CVM). If the total amount exceeds the pre-authorised
amount(s), a final authorisation must be obtained for the excess
amount. The Transaction must be handed over to the Acquirer
in accordance with the general terms and conditions.
8.1.4 Interim billing
For rental periods of more than fourteen (14) days, the Merchant is advised to prepare the cardholder’s bill after fourteen
(14) days, carry out a Transaction for this amount and send the
Transaction to the Acquirer. Thereafter, a new 14-day bill period
is to be started as described above.
8.2 Express return
When the car is returned
Once the cardholder has returned the car, the Merchant is to
prepare the cardholder’s bill for the rental period and carry out
a terminal transaction for the total amount.
This section is applicable to Visa Transactions: If the total
amount exceeds the already authorised amount(s) by less than
15%, the Merchant does not have to obtain any further authorisation. If the total amount exceeds the already authorised
amounts by more than 15%, an authorisation must be obtained
for the excess amount.
This section is applicable to MasterCard Transactions: If the
total amount exceeds the pre-authorised amount(s), a new final
authorisation must be obtained for the excess amount.
The words “signature on file – express return” must be noted
in the terminal receipt’s signature area. The Transaction is to
be handed over to the Acquirer in accordance with the general
terms and conditions.
The Merchant is to send a copy of the itemised bill, terminal receipt, rental contract and express return form to the cardholder
within three (3) days of the cardholder returning the car. The
Merchant is to store all the documentation for eighteen (18)
months and send a copy to the Acquirer upon request.
8.3 Subsequent debiting of the cardholder
If stated in the rental contract, the Merchant may subsequently
debit the cardholder for fuel consumption, any extended rental
period, traffic fines, parking fines and tolls.
The subsequent debiting is to be carried out as a terminal transaction and the words “signature on file” are to be noted in the
receipt’s signature area. The Transaction must be authorised.
Subsequent payments are to be carried out within ninety (90)
days of the cardholder having returned the car. A copy of the
terminal receipt and an itemised bill for the subsequent debiting
must be sent to the cardholder.
In addition to the above special terms and conditions for car
rental, the following Operating Principles set out in clauses 8.4–
8.10 apply to cardholders with Visa cards issued within the
Visa Europe region. In the case of any conflict between these
Operating Principles and the other specific terms and conditions
applicable to car rental, the Operating Principles prevail.
8.4 Car Rental Reservation Service
A car rental company or its third-party booking agent that accepts Visa cards must follow the requirements of the Car Rental
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
Reservation Service if it accepts Visa cards to guarantee car
rental reservations.
Written confirmation to the cardholder must be sent either by
mail, fax or via e-mail.
8.5 Car rental information
The car rental company must communicate the cancellation
policy and procedures to the cardholder during the reservation
process.
At the time of reservation, the car rental company or its thirdparty booking agent must inform the cardholder of the reserved
car rental rate, currency and the exact name and physical address of the location the car is to be collected from.
If the car rental company wishes to charge a no-show fee, the
car rental company or its third-party booking agent must inform
the cardholder that a no-show transaction up to the value of
one (1) day’s rental at the reserved car rental rate will be debited to the cardholder if the cardholder has not either:
collected the vehicle within 24 hours of the collection time,
or
properly cancelled the reservation in accordance with the
communicated car rental company’s cancellation policy
If the car rental company wishes to charge a no-show transaction,
the car rental company or its third-party booking agent must confirm in writing as part of the reservation confirmation the value and
the currency of the fee that will be debited to the cardholder.
8.6 Reservation confirmation
The car rental company or its third-party booking agent must
provide a confirmation code and advise the cardholder to retain
it for future reference.
The car rental company or its third-party booking agent must
provide the cardholder with this information as a written confirmation with the following information relating to that booking:
cardholder’s name, account number and card expiration
date
confirmation code
exact physical address the car is to be collected from
hours of operation of the collection and the return outlets
cancellation policy and procedures
8.7 Cancellation period
The car rental company or its third-party booking agent must
not require a cancellation notification more than 72 hours before the scheduled collection time and date agreed at the time
of the booking.
If the cardholder makes the reservation within 72 hours of the
scheduled pickup date, the cancellation deadline must be no
earlier than 6pm (local time of the Merchant outlet on the pickup date).
8.8 Cancellation confirmation
The car rental company or its third-party booking agent must
provide a cancellation code for cancellations made in accordance with the communicated cancellation policy and advise the
cardholder to retain it.
The car rental company or its third-party booking agent must
send a written confirmation of the cancellation code to the cardholder within five (5) business days of the cancellation date.
Page 21 of 23
8.9 Unclaimed rentals
If the cardholder has not claimed or cancelled the car rental
by the specified time, the car rental company or its third-party
booking agent must hold the car available according to the reservation for 24 hours from the collection time. If the car rental
remains unclaimed by the cardholder, the car rental company
may process a no-show transaction.
8.10 Unavailable rentals
If rentals guaranteed by the Car Rental Reservation Service are
unavailable, the car rental company must provide the cardholder with a car in an equivalent group or higher at no extra
charge.
8.11 Damage, fuel and extra charges confirmation
The cost to repair the damage to the car needs to be charged as
a separate Transaction.
If the costs are paid with a MasterCard trademark, the Merchant needs to send an estimated cost approval which the
cardholder needs to sign or the Merchant has no right to make
the charge.
If the car is paid with a Visa trademark, the Merchant has
to send an estimated cost approval to the customer and the
customer can contact the Merchant to propose another garage.
After that the Merchant should wait for twenty (20) days before
debiting the card. Every page of the car rental contract should
be signed by the cardholder.
The car rental company must ensure that the cardholder is
advised at the time of making a reservation that a confirmation
receipt is available during the hours of operation of the outlet
to which the rental car is returned. The confirmation receipt
confirms the mutually agreed condition of the car upon return.
The car rental company must provide written confirmation of
the cardholder’s decision to request or not to request a confirmation receipt as part of the reservation confirmation.
The car rental company must provide the cardholder with a
written confirmation of the following:
The visible damage status of the car upon
return. If there is no visible damage, this must be clearly stated on the written confirmation and the car rental
company must not process a delayed or amended Transaction for visible damage to the car
The fuel status of the car upon return. If there are no extra
fuel charges, this must be clearly stated on the written
confirmation and the car rental company must not process
a delayed or amended Transaction for extra fuel.
The date and time of the return. If there are no extra rental
charges as a result of extended timeframes, this must be
clearly stated on the written confirmation and the car rental
company must not process a delayed or amended Transaction for one (1) extra day’s rental or more.
If the cardholder returns the car using an express drop-off
facility, the written confirmation receipt must be sent to the
cardholder within five (5) business days of the car return date.
This confirmation receipt should be retained by the cardholder
if required for future reference.
Rules of Card Acquiring Merchant Agreement
A car rental company may only process a delayed or amended
Transaction if the cardholder has given his or her prior written
consent to incur such delayed or revised charges.
For delayed or revised charges relating to damage, the car
rental company must provide the cardholder with a written
confirmation of the details of the damage, the currency of the
damage amount and the value of the damage amount within
ten (10) business days of the car return date.
For delayed or revised charges relating to damage where the car
rental company has written to the cardholder, the cardholder
may provide a written confirmation of an alternative estimate
for the damage amount at no cost to the cardholder. The cardholder must provide the car rental company with the written
confirmation of an alternative estimate within ten (10) business
days of receiving the written confirmation of the original details
of the damage from the car rental company.
For delayed or revised charges relating to damages, the car
rental company must wait twenty (20) business days from the
date of the confirmation receipt was delivered to the cardholder
before processing the Transaction.
Other delayed or revised charges may still apply.
9. Contactless payments
A Cardholder (or a holder of a mobile payment application) may
make at its option a low-value Transaction in the amount up
to the CVM-required limit set out in the Merchant Instructions
without authorising the Transaction with PIN (unless the cardholder’s authorisation by PIN is required by the terminal due to
the contactless feature of a card) by using a card (or a mobile
payment application) personalised by the issuer to be able
to perform contactless payment Transactions. In contactless
payment Transactions the chip is read using the contactless interface in a terminal. Transactions exceeding the CVM-required
limit or Transactions where the cardholder’s authorisation by
PIN is required for security reasons may only be accepted by
the Merchant if the verification procedures are performed in
accordance with clause 1.1 of the Part C Rules.
If the cardholder selects to use contactless payment for a payment of less than the CVM-required limit, the Merchant must
always provide the cardholder with receipt at the cardholder’s
request.
In order to receive contactless payments the Merchant must
have a terminal displaying the contactless symbol, supporting
offline and online transactions and contact, contactless and
magnetic stripe payments, supporting signature as a CVM and
otherwise fulfilling the requirements set out in the Merchant
Instructions and other requirements for POS terminals.
If a purchase transaction is made using the contactless card
or device, the return transaction must also use the contactless
device. The return process will need to account for contactless
mapped transactions.
In addition clause 1 in the Part C Rules is applicable to contactless payments.
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