CCBill - Do I Have To Own The Sites We Process Through You For?

[Lee]

I have a possible business venture in the works right now with a well-known studio who doesnt want to handle the processing side of things for several paysites that they are planning on launching.

It has been suggested that one of my companies handles the 3rd party processing aspect and hosting of these paysites but, the company we would be partnering with owns all of the domain names that will be used for the paysites.

Is this okay to do, if we have some kind of contract in place between our company and theirs to state we are providing aggregate processing via CCBill for web properties that we do not own?

I wasnt sure what the dealio with Visa was when it comes to this type of processing setup?

Regards,

Lee

[chadknowslaw]

If I recall correctly you do have to own the URL under Visa rules.

I don't think the scenario you described is allowed.

[Lee]

I beleive that isnt 'exactly' correct as we have used domain names owned by a different person before to operate a paysite, this situation im in now is different though as we wont actually own the sites themselves, just be providing the processing account for them.

Regards,

Lee

[chadknowslaw]

Then I don't recall correctly!

[gaybucks_chip]

I've been directly told the same thing Chad is saying by CCBilll.

What you're proposing is called "factoring" and is strictly prohibited by all card issuers.

We had a domain name that was held by one of the companies we own (other than the main one that owns our adult sites). We had a site going through compliance and they rejected it because the whois didn't match the company name for our ccbill account. I argued and argued that the two companies were owned by the same people, were sister companies, etc... but to no avail.

If you succeed in making this happen, please be sure to let me know how you accomplish it, because we've had some deals where we wanted to do this.

Of course... keep in mind, you can always just set up another account. THere aren't many differences between opening up a new account and putting up a new site on an existing account, both have to go through Visa compliance.

[gaybucks_chip]

One other thought:

Why not have the studio transfer the domains to your name, and then you provide them with a power of attorney that gives them control rights over the domain names, and additionally, a written agreement stating that the ownership of the domains remains with them, and that the registrations are transferred only to meet regulatory compliance, and that the studio can gain back control at any time by sending a written request to you, with some enormous liquidated damages that you'd pay to the studio if you fail to comply.

The combination of those two would give them almost the same protection as if they had the domains in their own name the whole time.