Scheme requirements for subscription merchants

• General website requirements
• Subscription business model requirements
• Negative option billing business model requirements
• Non-compliance consequences

General website requirements

Contact details

• Mailing address (for correspondence)
• Customer support number or customer support email 

Contact information on the Contacts page:

• The merchant’s website must include information on the merchant’s location. At least the city and country of the legal entity need to be added
• We recommend adding the required information to the website footer or the checkout screen
• For EU merchants, specifying the full address is highly recommended
• If the company is registered in the UAE or the USA, the emirate/state needs to be specified as well (e.g., Wilmington, Delaware, the USA)

Subscription business model requirements

• Total purchase price of the subscription
• Description of the service to be purchased (e.g., subscription to the website, trial access, premium plan)
• Frequency of further charges (monthly, weekly, annual)
• How the cardholder will be notified of any changes to the agreement (e.g., by email)
• The last four digits of the card that will be used to make payments
• Explanation of how to cancel the subscription (e.g., link to the Cancellation Policy)

Disclaimer 

Transaction receipt

1. A transaction receipt must be sent after the first purchase and after each subsequent payment (even if it was unsuccessful for some reason – then the reason needs to be specified).
2. The transaction receipt needs to be sent immediately after the transaction.
3. The transaction receipt must include the following information:
   • Merchant’s name and location (at least country, state (if any), and city)
   • Transaction amount along with the currency symbol
   • Transaction date
   • Description of the purchased services (e.g., subscription to the website, trial access, premium plan)
   • Card network/scheme name (Visa or Mastercard accordingly)
   • Payment credentials (the last four digits of the card that was used)
   • Subscription/trial terms (length, auto-renewable nature, price, etc.)
   • Links to Cancellation and Refund Policy (or Terms & Conditions, if the Cancellation Policy is part of it)

Additionally, we recommend:

• Choosing a clear design for transaction receipts
• Specifying the email subject for transaction receipts:

Cancellation procedure

1. Provide an easy cancellation online method. Cancellation may be performed via separate cancellation button placed on the website, cancellation button in the user’s account on the website. Better user experience or via support email. But in this case, relevant instructions along with the email need to be displayed to the user in the Cancellation Policy and in the User’s profile (preferably).
2. Inform users of the Cancellation and Refund Policy and collect their acceptance prior to the checkout page. This can be done by:
   • Option 1. Adding a clickable Click to accept button along with the disclosure of the Cancellation & Refund terms.
   • Option 2. By including a separate clickable link to the Cancellation and Refund Policies (or Terms & Conditions if the Cancellation Policy is part of it) in the disclaimer of the general payment terms.
3. Include information on how to cancel the subscription and receive a refund in each transaction receipt and notification on upcoming charges. This can be done by:
   • Option 1. By adding a disclaimer along with links to Cancellation and Refund Policies (or Terms & Conditions, if the Cancellation Policy is part of it) to the email.
   • Option 2. Specifying the cancellation and refund rules directly in the receipts.

Negative option billing business model requirements

Definition

Mastercard

Visa

Requirements

1. The Merchant must provide a full disclaimer prior to the payment credentials collection. We recommend using the following text:

   By continuing, you agree that if you do not cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the monthly/3-month/6-month trial, you will be charged [full price of the subscription] per month/3 months/6 months until you cancel your subscription. You can cancel it by contacting our customer support team via email at [specify the email]/in your account/another option.

2. Click-to-accept button must be placed along with the above disclaimer. It is also possible to collect the user’s acceptance of general Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and similar documents at this point as well.

   Note: While there is no strict requirement to use a checkbox, such an approach will be appreciated by acquirers and schemes.

3. Notification reminders must be sent no less than 3 days and no more than 7 days before the trial period ends. They should include the information listed in the clause above.

   Note: Although Visa/Mastercard did not expressly provide rules for merchants with a trial period of fewer than seven days, we recommend that merchants send a reminder notice as soon as possible before initiating the recurring transaction.

4. A transaction receipt must be provided after each charge. The receipt must include the following information:
   • Name of the merchant
   • Description of the purchased goods/services (subscription to the website, trial access, premium plan, for example)
   • Length of the trial period
   • Disclosure that the subscription will be renewed at the full price
   • Transaction amount and transaction date for initial payments (even if the trial is for free)
   • Transaction amount and transaction date for subsequent charges
   • Link to the cancellation policy
   • Instruction on how the user can cancel a subscription (by contacting support/in the user’s account)

Non-compliance

Links and resources

• Mastercard Transaction Processing Rules
• Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules
• Trial Subscription updates VISA Summary
• Mastercard Rules