Payment rules
Vipps MobilePay supports a wide range of payment types, but not all payment contexts are equal under financial regulation. Understanding these rules upfront avoids surprises during onboarding and integration — and protects both your business and your customers.
Compliance and sales unit setup​
Financial regulators require different handling depending on whether the cardholder is physically present at the time of payment — for example, an in-store tap-to-pay versus an e-commerce checkout.
Vipps MobilePay carries out "Know Your Customer" (KYC) and compliance checks for each sales unit, and assigns the appropriate Merchant Category Code (MCC) on your behalf. As a result, if your business accepts payments across different contexts (e.g., both online and in-person, or across different product categories), you may be required to create separate sales units for each.
Plan for this during integration design — it affects how you structure your sales units and how payments are routed.
Customer protection​
Vipps MobilePay complies with local applicable laws and guidance from relevant authorities, including the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet).
The customer must actively accept the terms and conditions before a payment is initiated. Sending a deeplink directly to a payment does not satisfy this requirement. Integrations that skip the acceptance step are non-compliant.
Release unused funds promptly​
If you reserve a payment but will not capture the full amount — or will not capture at all — you must cancel the unused portion as soon as possible.
This is not just a compliance obligation; it is also good practice:
- It frees up the customer's funds immediately, rather than leaving them reserved against their account.
- It keeps the customer's payment history in the Vipps or MobilePay app in sync with their expectations.
- It reduces inbound support contacts from customers who see a pending charge that never resolves.
To release funds, cancel the payment.
Payment deadlines​
- Capture deadlines — how long a reservation stays valid before it expires automatically, including card network-specific limits for Visa and Mastercard.
- Capture regulations — the regulatory requirement that capture must not occur before the product or service is delivered to the customer.