Merchant of record (MoR)
The legal entity that sells to the customer in a transaction — the party responsible for the sale, its tax treatment, refunds, chargebacks and customer support.
Updated 15 September 2026
In practice
A platform processes the payment and displays the receipt, while a separate supplier is the merchant of record and therefore owns the refund, the tax liability and the complaint.
The distinction
The platform a buyer sees, the entity that receives the money and the entity legally selling can all be different. Calling something a marketplace does not settle which of them owns tax, fulfilment, support or a dispute.
Marketplace is a distribution model, not a responsibility model
A marketplace can supply discovery, procurement access, contract surfaces, billing and payouts. It can also leave fulfilment, metering, invoicing, tax, support and collection with the publisher.
Current platform documentation makes this explicit rather than implied. Publishers can remain responsible for fulfilment, metering, billing, invoicing, payment and collection even where the platform facilitates parts of the transaction.
Questions to settle before an agent buys
- Which legal entity is selling?
- Who receives the money, and is that the same entity?
- Who owns the tax treatment in this jurisdiction?
- Who processes a refund, and within what window?
- Who answers a complaint, and through which channel?
- Who bears a chargeback or a negative balance?
When an agent transacts unattended, these stop being back-office detail. They are the difference between a recoverable mistake and an unrecoverable one.
Why it matters more with agents
A person buying through a website usually sees the seller's name on the checkout page and the receipt. An agent selecting from a catalogue may never surface that distinction to anyone.
If the buyer cannot name the seller, the payee and the complaint path, the purchase should not be made unattended.
Sources & context
Stripe Connect marketplaces
Stripe · 2026
Documents how the configuration changes who creates charges, collects fees, bears negative balances and handles disputes.
Source checked 2026-09-13
Stripe Tax with Connect
Stripe · 2026
Allocates tax responsibilities by marketplace configuration rather than by a single default.
Source checked 2026-09-13