Is a marketplace the merchant of record?
Usually yes. Visa defines a marketplace as a platform that brings customers and sellers together under its own brand, contracts with the acquirer itself, issues the receipt in its name and handles refunds and disputes. Visa also caps any single retailer at $10 million in annual Visa volume and 10% of the marketplace’s total.
In detail
Usually yes. Visa defines a marketplace as a platform that brings customers and sellers together under its own brand, contracts with the acquirer itself, issues the receipt in its name and handles refunds and disputes. Visa also caps any single retailer at $10 million in annual Visa volume and 10% of the marketplace’s total.
Merchant, marketplace, PayFac or MoR provider: who is the seller?
Visa describes a marketplace as an entity that brings together customers and sellers on a single, marketplace-branded platform, contracts with the acquirer itself, issues the receipt in its own name and handles refunds and disputes. The marketplace is the MoR, and the sellers are not merchants in the scheme’s sense.
Is a merchant of record worth it in 2026?
For a marketplace, being the MoR is often not a choice but the scheme definition of what it is. For a PSP, PayFac or SaaS platform, the answer is usually the opposite: keep each seller as the merchant of record, onboard it properly, show its name on the statement, and provide the tax, payout and dispute tooling around it.
More detail in our #PayDecoding episode on Merchant of record.