--- title: "What Is a Merchant of Record (MoR)? Definition and Examples" description: "The merchant of record is the legal seller in a transaction, responsible for payment, tax and refunds. See who it is on a streaming service and why it matters." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/merchant-of-record" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/merchant-of-record.md" category: "Pricing & billing" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is a merchant of record? The merchant of record (MoR) is the legal entity that sells a product to the customer. Its name appears on the customer's statement, and it is responsible for processing the payment, collecting and remitting sales tax, and handling refunds and disputes. ## Who the merchant of record can be - You: sales go through your own payment account, and tax and compliance are yours to handle - An app store: for purchases made through store billing, the store is the seller and remits tax in most countries - A reseller service: a company that sells on your behalf, handles tax worldwide and pays you the remainder for a fee - A platform vendor: some streaming platforms act as the seller and pay out to the content owner ## Why it matters Digital services are taxed where the customer is, so a service selling in fifty countries may owe tax in many of them. Whoever is merchant of record carries that duty, along with fraud liability and chargebacks. It also decides who holds the customer relationship. When you are the merchant of record, the payment accounts, the customer data and the stored payment tokens are yours, and they move with you if you change platform. ## The trade-off Using a third party as merchant of record removes most tax and compliance work and usually costs more per sale. Being your own costs less per sale and requires you, or your advisers and tools, to register and file where you owe tax. ## Merchant of record on RentAnOTT Regional payments and tax are part of monetization on every RentAnOTT plan, and RentAnOTT takes no cut of sales. Ask us on a demo how payment accounts and tax handling are set up for your markets. [See features](https://www.rentanott.com/features). ## Related terms - [Payment gateway](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/payment-gateway) — A payment gateway is the service that securely collects a customer's payment details, sends the transaction to the banks and card networks for approval, and reports the result back to the business. A streaming service uses one to sell subscriptions, rentals and purchases on the web. - [Transaction fee](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/transaction-fee) — A transaction fee is an amount deducted from each individual sale, as a percentage, a fixed sum or both. On a streaming service it can be charged by the payment provider, by an app store and, on some platforms, by the platform vendor itself. - [App store commission](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/app-store-commission) — App store commission is the percentage an app store, such as Apple's App Store, Google Play or a TV platform's store, keeps from each payment made through its in-app billing. It typically ranges from 15% to 30%. - [In-app billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/in-app-billing) — In-app billing is the payment system that an app store, such as Apple's App Store, Google Play or the Amazon Appstore, provides for buying digital goods inside apps. It charges the payment method on the user's store account and manages renewals, refunds and cancellations for subscriptions bought that way. - [Multi-currency billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/multi-currency-billing) — Multi-currency billing is charging customers in their local currency instead of a single currency for everyone. The price is shown, charged and receipted in that currency, and the business receives the funds either in the same currency or converted to its own. - [Recurring billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/recurring-billing) — Recurring billing is charging a customer's saved payment method automatically at a fixed interval, such as every month or year, until they cancel. It is the billing mechanism behind every streaming subscription. - [Content migration](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/content-migration) — Content migration is moving a streaming service from one platform to another: the video files, metadata and artwork, the plans and prices, and the subscriber accounts with their active subscriptions. ## Further reading - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing) - [Localized pricing for streaming](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/localized-pricing-streaming) - [How to start a streaming service](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/how-to-start-a-streaming-service) ## Frequently asked questions ### Is a payment gateway a merchant of record? No. A gateway processes payments for the seller. The merchant of record is the seller itself, which holds the legal responsibility. ### Who is the merchant of record for in-app purchases? The app store, in most countries. It charges the customer, handles tax and pays the publisher after commission. ### Can I change merchant of record later? Yes, but active subscriptions are tied to the current seller's payment tokens, so plan the change as a migration. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt