Card Network Rules

Card network rules are the private operating regulations that each card scheme publishes and requires its members to follow. They bind issuers and acquirers directly, and reach merchants, payment facilitators and processors through their contracts with acquirers. The rules cover how cards may be issued and branded, how transactions are authorised, cleared and settled, which data must be sent, how disputes and chargebacks work, how card data must be protected, what fees apply and how merchants must display brands and honour cards. Schemes update their rules several times a year and enforce them through monitoring programmes, fines and, in serious cases, termination. They work alongside public law: where national rules differ, for example on surcharging or debit routing, law takes priority. The wider concept is described as payment network rules, and meeting them is the task of card scheme compliance within the card schemes ecosystem.