Ecommerce4 min readUpdated October 15, 2026

What Is a Marketplace in Payments?

What a marketplace is in payments: Visa's definition and rules, seller payouts on Stripe and Adyen, marketplace vs payfac, merchant of record, tax.

Nick Bonnassies, CMO at Tagada · checked against 5 sources

Article summary

TL;DR

A marketplace is a website or app that brings buyers and many retailers together, takes the card payments for those retailers and receives the settlement in their place. Visa uses exactly that definition. The marketplace then pays each seller its sales minus refunds, disputes and its fees, and it carries the disputes toward the card network.

Visa defines a marketplace as an entity that brings cardholders and retailers together online, processes transactions and receives settlement on their behalf.
To qualify, its brand must be more prominent than the sellers', and it must be financially liable for disputes and settle them itself.
The buyer pays the marketplace. The marketplace pays each seller promptly, minus refunds, discounts, disputes and agreed fees.
On Stripe, the charge type decides where funds land and who pays refunds and disputes. On Adyen, split instructions divide each payment.

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On this page

In payments, "marketplace" is not just a business model. Visa has a defined category for it, with its own rules, and it changes who gets paid, who refunds and who answers for disputes. By industry: selling on marketplaces for supplement brands, selling on marketplaces for skincare brands and Amazon vs. your own store for supplement brands.

What is a marketplace?

Visa defines a marketplace as "an entity that brings together Cardholders and retailers on an electronic commerce website or mobile application and processes Transactions and receives Settlement on behalf of those retailers."1

Visa first checks whether a business is a plain merchant: it sells the goods, uses its own name at checkout and gives the cardholder recourse. If not, it can be classified as a marketplace, a payment facilitator or a wallet operator (section 5.3.2.2). To be a marketplace, it must meet all of these (section 5.3.4.1):1

Its name is shown more prominently than the sellers' names and is part of the app name or URL.
It handles payments and refunds for its retailers and receives settlement for them.
It is financially liable for disputes and resolves them with a binding decision or a money-back guarantee it funds.
No foreign retailer exceeds both USD 10 million in yearly Visa volume through it and 10% of its Visa volume.

Travel agents, High-Integrity Risk Merchants and charities, crowdfunding included, can't be marketplaces or sell through one. For a seller, it's the opposite of running your own store, where you are the merchant of record.

How marketplace payments and seller payouts work

The buyer pays the marketplace. One checkout, under the marketplace's brand.
The acquirer settles to the marketplace. Visa lets an acquirer pay a marketplace directly. The marketplace may only deposit sales made through its own site or app.
The marketplace splits the money. On Stripe Connect, a destination charge lands on the platform and part of it moves to one seller. Separate charges and transfers let one charge pay several sellers, for example a single cart from multiple shops. On Adyen for Platforms, split instructions send part of each payment to a seller's balance account and the commission to the platform's.
Each seller gets paid out. Visa requires the marketplace to pay its retailer "promptly", the sales total minus refunds, discounts, disputes or other agreed fees.

Sources: Visa Core Rules April 2026 (section 1.5.6), Stripe and Adyen docs read October 14, 2026.

With both Stripe charge types, refunds and disputes are debited from the platform's balance; it can reverse the transfer to recover them.2 On Adyen, without split instructions, the whole amount and fees go to the platform's liable balance account.3 The three platform models are compared on our embedded payments page, and payout timing on payout.

Marketplace vs payment facilitator

	Marketplace	Payment facilitator
Who signs the seller	The marketplace, before depositing its sales	The payfac, under a merchant agreement
Brand at checkout	The marketplace's, above the sellers'	The merchant's, sometimes after the payfac's
Liable for disputes	The marketplace, which also resolves them	The payfac, toward its acquirer
Visa registration	Third Party Agent, with a marketplace identifier on every authorization and clearing record	Payment facilitator, confirmed by Visa

The acquirer of a marketplace must also check its sellers and block illegal and counterfeit sales (section 5.3.4.4). A payfac may sign a marketplace only if the marketplace identifier travels with each transaction and at least 75% of its sellers are in its country (section 5.3.1.5).1 More on this model on our aggregator merchant page.

What it means for an online merchant

If you sell on a marketplace, its terms set your payout schedule and how disputes reach you. Tax duties can move to the platform too: in the EU, marketplaces facilitating some sales of goods are "deemed" to have supplied them for VAT,4 and in the US they file Form 1099-K for sellers above the IRS threshold (see disbursement).5 EU payment providers also report cross-border payees under CESOP.

If you sell on your own store, you are not a marketplace, and Visa's marketplace rules don't apply to you.

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Updated on October 15, 2026

Nick Bonnassies

CMO at Tagada

CMO at Tagada. Before Tagada, Nick built direct-to-consumer brands that generated over $115M in sales, raised over $25M in crowdfunding and sold two of them. He also works as a fractional CMO on marketing operations and AI systems.

Frequently asked questions

How does a marketplace payout work?

The buyer pays the marketplace, and the acquirer settles the funds to the marketplace. The marketplace keeps its fee and pays each seller the rest. Visa requires that payment to be prompt and equal to the sales minus refunds, discounts, disputes and other agreed fees. The seller's terms set the schedule.

Who is the merchant of record on a marketplace?

In Visa's model, the marketplace plays that role: it takes the payment, receives settlement and is liable for disputes, while each seller still owns and ships the product. On Stripe Connect, destination charges and separate charges and transfers put the payment, refunds and disputes on the platform's balance.

Is a marketplace the same as a payment facilitator?

No. A payment facilitator signs up businesses that remain the seller on each sale. A marketplace takes payments for its retailers under its own brand and resolves their disputes. A payment facilitator can sign a marketplace as a sponsored merchant if at least 75% of its sellers are in the marketplace's country.

Do marketplaces report seller payments to tax authorities?

In the US, yes: per the IRS page updated June 28, 2026, online marketplaces file Form 1099-K when a seller's payments exceed $20,000 in more than 200 transactions. In the EU, a marketplace can be deemed the supplier for VAT on goods it facilitates.

Sources

Checked October 15, 2026

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