Check the merchant agreement before it shapes your payment risk

The main issue is that these agreements often give the provider broad control over matters that affect your cash flow and operations. That can include rolling reserves, delayed settlements, unilateral fee changes, suspension rights, chargeback exposure and wide termination powers. A legal review helps identify where the wording is one-sided, unclear or commercially difficult in practice. We explain what the clause means, why it matters for your business model and which points are worth raising before you sign, renew or continue using the service.

The answer usually sits in the operational clauses, not just the headline pricing. We commonly look closely at settlement timing, fees, reserve arrangements, chargebacks, fraud allocation, provider monitoring rights, data use, subcontracting, service levels, suspension, termination and liability limits. If the provider handles or accesses personal information, the legal position can depend on how information is handled in practice, not just the contract wording. That is why we review both the document language and the way the arrangement appears to work commercially.

Yes. This service is suitable for businesses with more involved payment flows, including online platforms, subscription models, marketplaces and businesses using third-party processors. The contract should reflect the practical arrangement, not just a generic precedent or one-sided checklist. For example, it matters whether you process payments directly, route funds through another provider, store customer information, or rely on multiple vendors. Those details can change which clauses carry the most risk and what changes may be sensible to request.

Usually not. Merchant services agreements are often provider-issued documents, but the real risk sits in how the standard wording interacts with your transaction patterns, refund profile, customer geography, chargeback history and data flows. A generic checklist may miss practical issues such as broad reserve powers or unclear responsibility for disputed transactions. A lawyer review gives you contract-specific comments and a clearer sense of whether the document is workable for your business. If you need amendments drafted, that can be scoped as additional work after the review.

We usually need the current merchant services agreement and any related terms, schedules or policy documents that form part of the arrangement. It also helps to know how your payment setup works in practice, including whether you collect, use and share customer information through the provider or connected systems. After review, we provide written comments identifying key risks, obligations and likely negotiation points. If needed, we can then discuss whether the next step is signing as is, seeking amendments or obtaining further support on related documents.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Merchant Services Agreement Review service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.