Payments

Our Payments team is one of the largest specialist payments legal teams in the UK. We offer commercial payments support alongside strong regulatory, technology, dispute and data protection expertise, providing a comprehensive solution for payments businesses as well as those looking to procure complex payment services.

On the supplier side, we work with card issuers, merchant acquirers, payment gateway providers, account information services providers, payment initiation services providers, and with businesses looking to break into regulated areas and needing help with where to start.

For businesses looking to procure payment services, we have particular expertise in drafting and negotiating omnichannel gateway, acquiring and terminal rental agreements, with advising on marketplaces and on payment orchestration platform arrangements.

We also work closely with Fintechs and technology businesses operating across the different layers of the payments ecosystem, giving us a sophisticated understanding of the technology driving this challenging and evolving sector.

Our expertise spans across a wide range of payments disciplines, including:

Payment scheme rules compliance
Chargeback risk process and other legal risks associated with payments businesses and their products
Drafting standard merchant terms and conditions and agreement templates
Negotiating complex, omni channel payment services agreements
Advising on strategic membership and incentive agreements with the major card schemes
PSR compliance, including issues relating to D+1 and deferred settlement
Compliance with SCA RTS in relation to acquiring businesses, including exemptions, such as TRA
IFR compliance, including in relation to interchange fee rate caps, blending and disclosures
Marketplaces and payment facilitation arrangements, including in relation to PSRs exemptions and scheme rules compliance
PCI-DSS related issues
Card receivable funding arrangements
AML issues, including in relation to regulatory obligations associated with payment businesses
Litigation issues, including increasingly intrusive FOS decisions
Material / critical outsourcing arrangements
Data protection law compliance