What is a monetic contract?
The acceptor is the merchant equipped with an POS Machine, an ATM or a website that enables bankcard transactions to be carried out.
Monetic contracts
To begin with, it is important to specify than an monetic contract is drawn up for each payment canal:
- Local payments
- Remote payments
- Automated payments
- Reloading electronic purses, etc.
Merchant obligations: the acceptor
The acceptor’s obligations concern his identity, his business, security and the payment of fees to the issuer. Merchants must be clearly identified by the SIRET and APE numbers assigned to them by INSEE. Retailers must inform their customers that they accept cards. By displaying the decals supplied by the issuer.
- The acceptor undertakes to receive payments in return for sales or services provided to its customers.
- The acceptor must use electronic devices approvzed by GIE cartes bancaires. And follow the procedures for which the technical details have been provided.
- Finally, they must immediately inform the issuer in the event of a malfunction.
- The acceptor must apply the same prices and rates to cardholders as to all its customers.
- The acceptor must archive and retain, as proof, for one year after the date of the transaction. The record of the corresponding transaction, including the image of the ATM ticket, with the certificate and authorisation numbers where applicable.
- The acceptor undertakes to pay the commissions, fees and any other sums due to the issuer.
- The Acceptor must use the procedure for managing and returning captured cards in the event of the withdrawal of a blocked and/or counterfeit card to the Cardholder.
- The acceptor undertakes to deal with any commercial disputes and their possible financial repercussions that may arise with customers who have paid for their goods and services by card.
The obligations of the merchant’s bank: the acquirer
The acquirer’s obligations to the acceptor relate in particular to providing information on security, and maintaining and updating the hardware and software used to accept payments.
- The Acquirer undertakes to provide the Acceptor, in accordance with the specific conditions agreed with the Acceptor, with information relating to the security of transactions, in particular access to the authorisation system.
- The Acquirer must provide the Acceptor, at the latter’s request, with information relating directly to the operation of the Cartes Bancaires System.
- The Acquirer must provide the Acceptor with the list and characteristics of all cards that can be accepted and provide the Issuer Code Index (BIN) if requested.
- The Acquirer undertakes to credit the Acceptor’s account with the sums due to it, in accordance with the terms and conditions agreed with the Acceptor.
- The Acquirer undertakes not to debit, beyond a maximum period of 15 months from the date of the initial credit to the Acceptor’s account, any unsecured transactions that could not be charged to the bearer’s account.
- The acquirer undertakes to pay a premium to the acceptor for any card that is stopped and/or counterfeited.
- The acquirer undertakes to provide the essential elements of the related administrative procedures at the request of the acceptor.
- For technical, financial or security reasons, the issuer may modify these general terms and conditions of membership and the special terms and conditions agreed with the acceptor at any time.
The particularities of remote payments for the acceptor
Remote payments are payments made away from the point of sale by internet, mobile phone or post without the merchant seeing the cardholder. The purchaser must provide the card details, in particular the card number, validity date and 3-digit verification code on the back of the card. It is impossible for the merchant to check that the purchaser is in possession of the card. The risk of fraud is fairly high for remote payments.
And in the event of fraud, distance selling contracts generally stipulate that the sums in question will be debited from the acceptor’s account. It is therefore the acceptor who is liable for the fraud and not the cardholder’s bank, as you might think. In fact, after re-crediting its customer, the cardholder’s bank turns to the merchant’s bank, which debits the merchant’s account.
