MasterCard Rules (PDF)

5.1 The Merchant Agreement
Merchants
5.1 The Merchant Agreement
Each Customer in its capacity as an Acquirer must directly enter into a written
Merchant Agreement with each Merchant from which it acquires Transactions,
whether such Transactions are submitted to the Customer directly by the
Merchant or through a Service Provider acting for or on behalf of such Customer.
An Acquirer shall not submit into interchange any Transaction resulting from
the acceptance of a Card by an entity or person except pursuant to a Merchant
Agreement then in effect between the Acquirer and the entity or person.
The Merchant Agreement must reflect the Acquirer’s primary responsibility for
the Merchant relationship and must otherwise comply with the Standards.
5.1.1 Verify Bona Fide Business Operation
Before entering into, extending, or renewing a Merchant Agreement, an
Acquirer must verify that the Merchant from which it intends to acquire
Transactions is a bona fide business, has sufficient safeguards in place to
protect from unauthorized disclosure or use such Cardholder and Transaction
information as the Standards permit to be captured, and complies with
applicable laws, and that each Transaction will reflect bona fide business
between the Merchant or Sub-merchant and a Cardholder. Procedures for
verifying that a Merchant is a bona fide business are set forth in section 7.1 of
the Security Rules and Procedures manual
5.1.2 Required Terms
Each Merchant Agreement must contain the substance of each of the Standards
set forth in Rules 5.6 through 5.12. The failure to include the substance of any
one or more of such Standards in the Merchant Agreement or the grant of a
variance by the Corporation with respect to any one or more such Standards
does not relieve an Acquirer from responsibility for chargebacks or compliance.
Each Merchant Agreement may contain only such terms agreed to by the
Acquirer and the Merchant, provided that no such term conflicts with any
Standard.
NOTE
Additions to this Rule appear in Section 10a, “New Zealand Rules”; Chapter
12, “Europe Region Rules”; Section 14a, “South Africa Rules”; and Section 15a,
“United States Region Debit-related Rules.”
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MasterCard Rules • 12 December 2012 5-1