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Card Brand Subscription Compliance

BlueSnap is committed to helping ensure a positive merchant and cardholder experience. Both MasterCard and Visa have standards for merchants processing subscriptions, recurring billing, and negative option billing.

To remain in compliance, merchants must adhere to all applicable standards.

These standards will help mitigate and reduce the risk of negative cardholder experiences and subsequent disputes. The Subscription Billing Engine helps our merchants comply with these standards.

While we have provided this functionality, it is important that you review the current standards against your process flow to ensure full compliance with these card brand standards as well as any applicable federal and state laws.

Any questions regarding your legal or card brand obligations should be addressed with your legal counsel.

Subscription/Recurring/Negative Option Billing:

For merchants engaging in subscription, recurring or negative option billing transactions:

1. Merchants must clearly and prominently disclose the basic terms of the transaction before requesting payment information, and capture the cardholder’s affirmative acceptance of such terms (e.g. “click to accept” button). The disclosure must include the price that will be billed, start date and end date of the subscription, details of the products and services offered, and the frequency of the billing (e.g. "You will be billed USD 9.95 per month until you cancel the subscription.”)
   • For electronic commerce (e-commerce) merchants, these disclosures should be at the point of payment. This includes the order summary page, the screen where cardholders enter their card credentials, and any screens that show a summary of the order (such as a shopping cart) before it is submitted for authorization by the cardholder.
   • It is not acceptable to provide a link to another page that contains this information (such as a terms and conditions page) or otherwise require the cardholder to expand a message box or scroll down the page for the terms.
2. Merchants must immediately after the order send a confirmation by email message or by any other electronic method to the customer that provides the terms of the subscription, including but not limited to the terms and length of any trial, introductory or promotional period when applicable, reason for billing, clear instructions that the cardholder will be billed unless they take action to cancel subsequent orders, how to cancel the subscription, and a cancellation link.
3. Merchants must send a receipt by email or any other electronic method after every billing that includes clear instructions for how to cancel the subscription and a cancellation link. Cardholders may choose to opt out of receiving these notices.
4. Merchants must provide a simple online or electronic cancellation method (similar to unsubscribing from email messages or any other electronic method) or clear instructions on how to cancel in a simple manner that are easily accessible online (such as a “Manage Subscription” or “Cancel Subscription” link on the merchant’s website).
5. For any subscription/recurring payment plan that bills a cardholder every six months or less (such as, but not limited to, the cardholder is billed every six months, every year, every two years), the merchant must send an electronic reminder (e.g. "Important Information about Upcoming Charges to your Account") that is distinct from marketing messages at least seven days, but no more than 30 days, before the billing date that includes the terms of the subscription and instructions about how a cardholder may cancel the subscription.

Negative Option Billing

If you are using negative option billing transactions (i.e. your customer will automatically be billed for ongoing goods or services), the following also applies in addition to the above requirements:

1. Negative Option Billing merchants are required to be registered by the card brands by the bank. Fees may apply and will be passed through to the merchant.
2. For Negative Option Billing merchants that offer a free or low-cost trial period and then automatically enroll the cardholder into a subscription plan at the end of the trial period:
   1. At the point of requesting payment information, disclose the terms of the trial including any initial charges, the length of the trial period, and the price and frequency of the subsequent subscription (e.g. "You will be billed USD 2.99 today for a 30-day trial. Once the trial ends, you will be billed USD 19.99 each month thereafter until you cancel.")
   2. If the merchant is offering a trial period of a digital good or service (such as streaming service, club membership, website access, or software license) that is longer than seven days, the merchant must send a reminder notification to the cardholder no less than three days, and no more than seven days, before the end of the trial period that the subscription plan will commence if the cardholder does not cancel. This notification must include the basic terms of the subscription and instructions about how to cancel. This reminder can be completed by email message or any other electronic method.
   3. For physical products (such as cosmetics, health-care products, or vitamins), after the trial period has expired, the merchant must provide the following information to the cardholder and receive the cardholder’s explicit consent in relation to this information before the merchant may submit an authorization request for the initial recurring payment transaction for the full-size or regular-price product:
      1. The date the subscription period begins.
      2. The transaction amount.
      3. Merchant name as it will appear on the cardholder’s statement.
      4. The payment date of the transaction. After the cardholder has provided consent, the merchant may not change this date.
      5. Instructions for terminating or cancelling the subscription.
3. The statement descriptor for the first transaction at the end of the trial must identify the transaction as a trial, e.g. trial, trial period, free trial.

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If you aren't using BlueSnap's Subscription Billing Engine

Merchants processing subscription/recurring payment transactions that do not use BlueSnap’s Subscription Billing Engine within our Payment Orchestration Platform must work with their subscription provider and legal counsel if necessary to ensure they are compliant.

Hosted Pages Compliance for Stored Credentials

In accordance with the new compliance requirements from MasterCard, we made updates to our hosted pages:

If a shopping cart contains at least one subscription (excluding On Demand subscriptions) and the selected payment method is CC (including wallets), a message will be displayed under the Subscribe button that specifies all the recurring terms of the subscription/s.

• When the Collect CC details checkbox is displayed, we show the following text under the Subscribe button:

  "By Clicking Subscribe, and leaving the above box checked, you are providing consent to securely store your card details and be charged according to the recurring payment terms below:"

• If the checkout page does not include a subscription, the checkbox is not checked. The shopper must actively select to have their card stored.

  Below this, shoppers are provided with the details of the subscription terms.