Credit and debit card industry: merchant questions and dispute resolution

Merchants who have questions or believe that their rights under the Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry in Canada have not been respected should first contact their payment service provider to try to resolve the issue.

When contacting the service provider, the merchant should have the following information on hand:

• full name and address of the merchant account
• merchant ID
• copy of the complete agreement with the payment service provider
• most recent statement from the payment service provider.

If the issue is not resolved at this level, the merchant can then raise it with the applicable payment card network.

How to file a complaint with a payment card network operator.

Merchants may also file a complaint with FCAC. If it appears that there is non-compliance with the Code of Conduct, FCAC will investigate and will follow up with the payment card network.

Note that FCAC does not have the authority to provide any recourse or order reimbursement to merchants or consumers. Individual recourse must be pursued through the dispute resolution process of the acquirer or payment card network (for merchants) and the card issuer (for consumers).

File a complaint with FCAC about a payment card network operator.