The Merchant Of Record (MoR) Designation Has Significant Privacy And Data Security Implications

Many companies negotiate contracts containing merchant of record designations without fully appreciating the significance of that designation from a privacy and data security perspective.

For purposes of this article, the merchant of record is the party that both contracts directly with the payment processor and holds the direct consumer relationship for the transaction. The MoR is the business the consumer knows, interacts with, and sees on the cardholder billing statement. This is the traditional direct-merchant model, distinct from platform arrangements where the SaaS provider or marketplace may hold the processor contract and billing-statement presence while the underlying store holds the consumer relationship.