IMPORTANT: New MasterCard rules for online subscriptions

MasterCard has recently updated the requirements for processing subscriptions (recurring transactions) in order to reduce customer complaints and the risk of chargebacks.

If you process subscription payments then you must ensure that your cardholders understand what they are signing up to, the amount being charged, the frequency of transactions, and your cancellation policy.

As of 8 June 2022, you will need to ensure to implement the following:

For all subscription payments, you must send a confirmation email to the cardholder at the time of enrolment, providing the terms of the subscription and details of the cancellation process. You must also ensure an email receipt is sent after each billing event, including instructions on how to cancel the subscription.

If you offer free/ low-cost trial subscription periods followed by auto-enrolment, and/ or you only bill your customers every 6 or 12 months, then you will need to send a reminder email to your customers 3 to 7 days before enrolment / the subscription starts. This should confirm that the subscription will commence if no cancellation is received, must include the basic terms of the subscription and the cancellation instructions.

When your customers agree to a subscription payment, you must clearly provide the terms of the agreement, which includes the amount that will be charged and the frequency (including any free period).

Am I impacted?

If you use the ePDQ Subscription Manager or Scheduled Payments facility to automate repeat/recurring payments, or use Alias Manager (tokens) to process recurring payments from your own systems, then this change will affect you. Please contact your web developer to update your website/transaction journey to ensure the aforementioned requirements are in place.