Note: These regulations only apply for Mastercard Trials

The new Mastercard regulations affect negative option billing merchants. A negative option billing merchant provides a consumer with a sample of a physical product at no cost or nominal cost. The consumer agrees to an ongoing subscription after which the merchant ships the product on a recurring basis and charges the consumer full price.

The typical model is as follows

• Product is free on Day 1

• Consumer is charged for the “free trial” on Day 14

• Consumer is then shipped new product and charged again on Day 30

Before attempting to configure the Expressed Consent requirements for CRM, please click here to review our article explaining the new Mastercard regulations.

1. Enable the Expressed Consent Plugin

• The Expressed Consent plugin can be found by navigating to Admin > Plugins > Express Consent.

2. Configure your SMTP Profile and Twilio SMS Plugin

• In order to allow your customers to receive Expressed Consent Emails and SMS Messages, configure a SMTP Profile and Twilio SMS Plugin.

  • See here for email setup information.

  • See here for sms setup information.

3.Mid Changes

• Any mid that falls under MCC of 5968: Direct Marketing—Continuity/Subscription Merchants will be automatically enrolled in Express Consent

• Navigate to Merchants > Mid List and go into your NMI and Verifi Mids. You will see that your mid is automatically "Enrolled In Express Consent".

4. Create an Expressed Consent Email Auto-Responder

Note To remain compliant with Mastercard you must set up the following Auto-Responders: Order Confirmation, Recurring Order, Trial Completion, Rebill Declined, Cancel Notification, and Expressed Consent.

Cancellation Policy: The merchant must provide a direct link to an online cancellation procedure on the website where the cardholder made the initial purchase. The merchant’s website must display a customer service phone number on the website maintenance page for periods during which the website is offline

• Navigate to your campaign and click Edit

• Scroll down until you see the Auto-Responder section.

• Click on the green plus button to add a new auto-responder

• In the Create Auto-Responder Screen Select Expressed Consent for the Event Name. Then configure the Auto-Responder to your campaign specifications.

• Once you have created the Expressed Consent Email Auto-Responder, you can edit the body of the email to your preferences. Though the expressed consent tags are required to be present on the email.

• [express_consent_details] = Contains Payment Amount, Payment Date, Recycle Billing Date (if a recycle billing profile exists), and Merchant Name (MID descriptor)

• [express_consent_yes] = For email, a link to click for consent.

• [express_consent_no] = For email, a link to click for consent denial.

• Make sure to save your changes!

5. Create an Expressed Consent SMS Auto-Responder

• After configuring your Email Auto-Responder, Scroll further down until you see the SMS Auto-Responder section.

• Click on the green plus button to add a new SMS auto-responder

• In the Create SMS Auto-Responder Screen Select Expressed Consent for the Event Name. Set your Validity Period and Resend Consent Days then hit Create

• Once you have created the Expressed Consent SMS Auto-Responder, you can edit the body of the text message to your preferences. Though the expressed consent tags are required to be present on this message.

• [express_consent_details] = Contains Payment Amount, Payment Date, Recycle Billing Date (if a recycle billing profile exists), and Merchant Name (MID descriptor)

• [express_consent_yes] = For sms, the code to text a consent reply.

• [express_consent_no] = For sms, the code to text a consent denial reply.

• Make sure to save your changes!