Squarespace’s New Pricing, The Impacts of Visa’s CEDP Program
Historically, commercial and corporate credit cards have carried higher base interchange rates than personal cards because they offer lucrative rewards to the businesses that use them. To offset these high costs, payment processors and platforms relied on Level 2 and Level 3 data programs. By passing extra transaction details to the card networks, platforms could secure a discount, allowing them to offer small businesses a relatively flat processing fee that included both consumer and business cards.
That dynamic changed in early 2026 under Visa’s new Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP).
Level 2 Savings Were Eliminated: On January 24, 2026, Visa increased Level 2 interchange rates on business cards by 75 basis points. By April 2026, the Level 2 program had sunset entirely.
Level 3 Became Harder: To get any interchange discount on commercial cards today, processors must submit what Visa now calls "Product 3" data. This is no longer just a matter of checking a box. Visa’s proprietary algorithm now strictly validates this data, demanding exact line-item descriptions, quantities, and verifiable tax data. Generic placeholders or slight formatting errors result in instant downgrades and higher fees.
Squarespace Passed the Cost to Basic & Core Plans
Platforms like Squarespace—and the underlying payment aggregators they use—are caught in the middle. With Level 2 gone, Squarespace faces a dilemma whenever a customer buys something on your site using a business card:
Eat the 75-basis-point cost increase out of their own margins.
Achieve strict Level 3 compliance, which is incredibly difficult to govern across millions of standard, out-of-the-box basic e-commerce checkouts.
Pass the inflated cost to the merchant.
Because it is a massive technical hurdle to guarantee 100% verified Level 3 data for every mom-and-pop store on a baseline subscription, Squarespace opted for the third route. On the Basic and Core plans, the processing fee for commercial cards has been raised to 3.2% + $0.30 (compared to 2.9% + $0.30 for standard domestic cards).
The Bottom Line
When the card networks turn off the easy discounts, platforms immediately push those costs down the chain. Visa's aggressive move to eliminate Level 2 savings and strictly gatekeep Level 3 data has made processing B2B payments inherently more expensive. Until AI and better data governance make Level 3 compliance seamless for entry-level e-commerce, small businesses on basic plans will continue to foot the bill for corporate card rewards.
