---
term: "Merchant of record"
category: "Commerce and checkout"
url: https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/merchant-of-record
source: AgenticOpenFinance glossary
---

# Merchant of record

> The business legally selling to the customer and responsible for the payment, refunds, taxes and disputes.

The merchant of record is the business that legally sells to the customer and is responsible for the transaction, including accepting the payment, handling refunds and disputes, and meeting tax and consumer law obligations. In agentic commerce the agent's operator usually is not the merchant of record; the Agentic Commerce Protocol, for example, states that sellers remain the merchant of record. Knowing who holds this role tells a customer where to turn when an agent's purchase goes wrong.

Related terms: [Agentic checkout](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/agentic-checkout.md), [Chargeback](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/chargeback.md), [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/agentic-commerce-protocol.md), [Billing error](https://agenticopenfinance.com/glossary/billing-error.md)