Merchant Website Compliance Checker

Merchant Website Compliance Checker automates the merchant website review used in onboarding and underwriting: give it merchant URLs and get policy pages, contact details, company and VAT numbers, SSL status and high-risk keyword hits for each site.

Best for: Acquirers, PSPs and payment facilitators onboarding merchants, risk and underwriting teams, and ISOs pre-checking prospects.

What does Merchant Website Compliance Checker do?

Automates the website review that acquirers, PSPs and payment facilitators do at merchant onboarding (card-scheme style checks). For each URL it reports:

• Presence + URL of Terms & Conditions, Refund/Returns, Privacy, Cookie, Shipping, Contact pages
• Contact details: emails, UK phone numbers, UK postcodes
• UK company number and VAT number stated on the site (pair with UK Company Check actor to verify)
• SSL: valid cert, issuer, days to expiry, HTTPS redirect
• Prohibited / high-risk goods keywords (CBD, vapes, gambling, crypto, replicas, nutraceutical "free trial" etc. + your own list)
• flags[] and a simple riskScore 0–100

Heuristic tool: an aid for human underwriters, not a compliance decision.

How to check a merchant website for onboarding

1. Add merchant website URLs to Merchant URLs (startUrls).
2. Optionally add your own terms to Extra prohibited keywords.
3. Click Start and review flags and riskScore for each site.

Pricing (pay-per-event)

• site-checked: $0.01 per site ($10 / 1,000).
• Example: 10,000 sites cost $100.00.

Example input

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk"
  ],
  "maxPolicyPages": 6
}

Example output

Values below are illustrative.

{
  "url": "https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk",
  "ssl": {
    "valid": true,
    "daysToExpiry": 100
  },
  "policies": {
    "termsAndConditions": {
      "found": true
    },
    "refundPolicy": {
      "found": false
    }
  },
  "companyNumbers": [
    "543821"
  ],
  "prohibitedKeywordHits": [],
  "flags": [
    "missing:refundPolicy"
  ],
  "riskScore": 15
}

Use it via API, schedules and integrations

Run it in Apify Console, or call it from your own code with the Apify API or the Python and JavaScript clients. Save an input as a task and add a schedule to run it regularly, and send results to Slack, email, webhooks, Zapier, Make or n8n with Apify integrations. AI agents can find and run it through the Apify MCP server.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("sterlingverify/merchant-compliance-checker").call(run_input={"startUrls": ["https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk"]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

FAQ

Is this a compliance decision?

No. It is a heuristic screening aid for human underwriters, not a compliance or legal determination.

Can I verify the company number it finds?

Yes. Pair it with UK Company Check to look the company up on Companies House.

Disclaimer

Heuristic screening aid for underwriters, not a compliance or legal determination. JavaScript-only sites are reported as unreliable.

Platform usage is included in the per-event price; you pay only for results.

Related sterlingVerify tools

Part of the sterlingVerify UK payments, KYB and data toolkit on Apify Store:

• UK Company Check: Companies House, VAT and UK sanctions KYB check in one call
• MCC Checker: check a merchant's MCC against its website or description
• PCI Readiness Scanner: passive checkout security check with a likely SAQ type
• Payments Stack Detector: find which PSPs, wallets and BNPL a store uses
• UK Sanctions Screener: fuzzy screening against the UK Sanctions List (FCDO)