Merchant of record
The entity legally and financially responsible for a transaction — whose name appears on the statement and who bears chargeback liability — not automatically whoever built the ordering software.
The designation has to be deliberately registered with a processor and the card networks. One common, legitimate arrangement keeps the restaurant itself as merchant of record. A different, equally legitimate arrangement (often called a payment facilitator model) has the platform register as merchant of record instead, with the restaurant operating as a sub-merchant.
Two coffee-ordering apps look identical to a customer. In the first, the coffee shop is merchant of record — its own name is on the statement. In the second, the app company is merchant of record — the statement reads the app's name, and a dispute goes to the app, not the coffee shop.
The most common mistake is assuming the merchant of record is automatically whoever built the software a customer used. It's a formal, registered designation — and it determines tax reporting too, since a processor reports transaction volume against the merchant of record's own tax identity.
The restaurant, not Dohos, is the seller and merchant of record for its own transactions — Dohos can't freeze a restaurant's funds or delay its payouts outside a governed process, covered on Payment security.
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