Choosing your favorite brand

The European (EU) MIF (Merchant Interchange Fee) Regulation 215/751 of 29 April 2015 on interchange fees for card-related payment transactions is intended, among other purposes, to abolish the monopoly of the domestic brand: consumers must be able to choose to pay with their Visa, Mastercard or CB cards.

It allows:
  • the merchant to choose the preferred brand that will be offered to buyers during the payment,
  • the cardholder to have the choice of card brand (i.e. the network used for the transaction).

    Thus, for CB cards co-branded VISA or MASTERCARD for example, the buyer will have the choice between the French CB network and the international VISA or MASTERCARD networks.

    A co-branded card is a card that includes two payment companies.

    Example

    • CB + VISA or ELECTRON or VPAY
    • CB + MASTERCARD or MAESTRO

Note

Each time an authorization uses international networks, the merchant may have to pay extra fees that will be transferred to the used network (depending on the commissioning methods of the merchant’s acquirer contract).

What steps does the merchant need to take?

In Systempay, CB is configured as the default brand during the payment stages.

To choose or modify your preferred brand and to know your default brand, please contact E-commerce customer service.

What is the impact on the payment process?

While the buyer enters the card number, the payment gateway searches for brands associated with the card.

The search is based on the BIN (Bank Identification Number) of the card. Once the list of brands has been identified, there are several possibilities:
  • The card is associated with only one brand

    In this case, the logo of the corresponding brand is automatically displayed.
  • The card is associated with several brands

    In this case, the logo of the merchant’s preferred brand is automatically displayed.

    A drop-down list will appear to the right of the entry field to allow the buyer to choose another brand.
  • No brands detected

    The buyer possibly made an error when entering the card number.

At the end of payment, the brand selected by the buyer will:
  • appear on the transaction receipt,
  • appear in the transaction history in the Merchant Back Office.
  • be transmitted to the merchant website with the IPN, via the vads_card_brand and vads_brand_management parameters.
Field name Format Description
vads_brand_management json This parameter is an output field. It indicates to the merchant:
  • whether the buyer used a different brand than the default brand defined by the merchant
  • the brand chosen by the buyer
  • the list of available brands

Example of a value:

vads_brand_management={"userChoice":true,
"brand":"CB","brandList":"CB|VISA"}