Merchant levels are the categories as defined by the payment brands to include all businesses dealing with credit cards. There are four merchant levels as defined below:

Merchant Level 1:

1. Any merchant processing over 6,000,000 Visa transactions per year.
2. Any merchant that has suffered a hack or an attack that resulted in an account data compromise.
3. Any merchant that the payment card brands, at their sole discretion, determine should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to minimize risk to the payment card brands.

Merchant Level 2:

Merchant level 2 is any merchant processing 1,000,000 to 6,000,000 credit card transactions per year.

Merchant Level 3:

Merchant level 3 is any merchant processing 20,000 to 1,000,000 credit card e-commerce transactions per year.

Merchant Level 4:

Any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 credit card e-commerce transactions per year, and all other merchants-regardless of acceptance channel-processing up to 1,000,000 Visa transactions per year.