Merchant Level Descriptions

A merchant is defined as any company that accepts credit cards in exchange for goods or services.

Level 1

• Any merchant* processing over 6,000,000 Visa or MasterCard transactions per year.
• Any merchant* processing over 2,500,000 American Express transactions per year.
• Any merchant that Visa or MasterCard determines should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to minimize risk to the system.

Level 2

• Any merchant* processing 1,000,000 to 6,000,000 Visa or MasterCard transactions per year.
• Any merchant* processing between 50,000 and 2,500,000 American Express transactions per year.

Level 3

• Any merchant processing 20,000 to 1,000,000 Visa or MasterCard e-commerce transactions per year.
• Any merchant* processing less than 50,000 American Express transactions per year.

Level 4

• All other merchants

*Regardless of acceptance channel