Payments · Supplements4 min readUpdated October 26, 2026

International Payments for Supplement Brands

Selling supplements abroad: product rules in Canada and the EU, what changes for payments (SCA, currencies, declines, fees) and a checklist per market.

Nick Bonnassies, CMO at Tagada · checked against 8 sources

Article summary

TL;DR

Check the product rules first: Canada requires a product licence before a natural health product is sold, and the EU only allows health claims listed in its register. Then plan payments: European cards need Strong Customer Authentication, foreign issuers decline more often, currencies and local methods matter, and cross-border retries cost more. Open one market at a time, with a processor that can settle there.

"All natural health products (NHPs) sold in Canada require a product licence before being marketed".
The EU register "lists all permitted nutrition claims and all authorised and non-authorised health claims".
In Europe, Stripe triggers 3D Secure automatically when Strong Customer Authentication requires it.
Visa's excess retry fee adds $0.05 cross-border to the $0.10 domestic fee, as reported by Payway.
Visa's 1.5% VAMP threshold is the US level since April 2026; other regions have their own.

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On this page

This guide is part of our hub on nutraceutical payment processing. The general guide, for any business: international payment processing.

Product rules first

Market	Before you sell	Source
Canada	Product licence and an 8-digit number (NPN) on the label, before marketing	Health Canada1
European Union	Health claims prohibited unless authorised and listed; misleading claims prohibited	Regulation 1924/20067, European Commission2
Ads abroad	Platform rules change by country; Google allows DHEA only in US campaigns, for example	Google Ads8
Other markets	Check the national regulator before the first shipment	Each regulator

A label written for the US, with US structure/function claims, may not be legal elsewhere. Processors in those markets read your claims against local rules.

What changes for payments

Topic	What changes	Source
Authentication	European cards: SCA, so 3DS is triggered when required	Stripe3
Declines	Issuers weigh signals such as spending habits and card data; foreign merchants look less familiar5	Stripe5
Currency	Price in local currency to avoid surprise conversion	Common practice
Local methods	Wallets and local methods vary by country	Payment methods
Retry fees	$0.05 cross-border on top of $0.10 per excess Visa attempt	Payway4
Monitoring	Visa thresholds differ by region; 1.5% is the US level6	Visa6

$0.10

Visa fee per excess retry, domestic, as reported by Payway

+$0.05

Added on cross-border retries

1.5%

Visa VAMP threshold, US level; other regions have their own

Tagada follows Visa and Mastercard rules and the laws that apply to payments.

Approval rates on foreign cards

Fig. 1A European card on a US store

approved declined or closed routing step

CheckoutEuropean cardholder
checked forSCA applies3DS triggered when required
sent toIssuerAuthenticated payment
returnsApprovedSettled where your processor canApproved

Without authentication where SCA applies, the payment fails.

Stripe Docs, Authenticate with 3D Secure, read October 26, 2026.

Measure approvals by card country, not overall5.
Ask for 3DS where SCA applies, rather than letting payments fail3.
Settle locally when a processor can: local acquiring often looks less risky to issuers.
Route by country to the processor that performs best there: payment routing.

Fig. 2Each market, its product rule and its payment rule

United States
Product: structure/function claims written for the US. Payment: Visa's 1.5% VAMP threshold.
Canada
Product: a licence and an 8-digit NPN on the label before marketing. Payment: local currency, approvals measured by card country.
European Union
Product: only authorised health claims from the register. Payment: SCA, with 3DS triggered when required.
Other markets
Product: check the national regulator before the first shipment. Payment: Visa thresholds differ by region.

Product rules come first: a payment setup can't fix an unlicensed product.

Health Canada; European Commission and Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006; Stripe Docs; Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program fact sheet.

Before you open a market

[ ] Product: licence, label language, claims checked against local rules1 2
[ ] Shipping: customs and import rules for supplements
[ ] Ads: platform rules for that country8
[ ] Payments: processor approved for that market and your products
[ ] Checkout: local currency, local methods, SCA3
[ ] Subscriptions: local cancellation and renewal notice rules
[ ] Support: hours and language

How Tagada helps

Route each country to the processor that performs there

Routing across Stripe, Adyen and TagadaPay with one logic, cascade on decline
Native 3DS2, device intelligence and a rules engine
One-page checkout with Apple Pay and Google Pay
TagadaPay lists "Supplements / nutra" among its industries; each file is underwritten, with enhanced review on regulated verticals

Plans are on the pricing page.

Apply for processing

Route each country to the processor that performs there

Updated on October 26, 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

Can I sell US supplements internationally?

Often, but each market has product rules. Canada requires a product licence before a natural health product is marketed; the EU prohibits health claims that aren't authorised and listed. Check before you ship.

Why are foreign cards declined more on my store?

Issuers judge on spending habits and card data, and a foreign merchant looks less familiar. In Europe, missing authentication causes failures; trigger 3DS where SCA applies.

Do I need a separate merchant account for each country?

Not always. Some processors settle in several regions; others need a local entity or account. Local acquiring can improve approvals, and routing by country lets you use each where it performs best.

Does Strong Customer Authentication apply to my US store?

It applies to European cardholders' payments covered by SCA, and Stripe triggers 3DS automatically when it's required. Renewals off-session follow exemption rules set by the processor.

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026

TagadaPay

Sell abroad with a processor that settles there

Tell us what you sell and how you sell it. Each application is underwritten, and approval is not guaranteed.

Apply for processing See pricing

01Tell us what you sell and how
02Underwriting reviews your business
03Process through TagadaPay alongside your other processors