we have a merchants guidelines document that we change from time to time to reflect the latest policy guidelines And see, this is where you can get in trouble, Tim. Basic contract law says it has to be mutually decided once it's entered into. If a merchant decides he/she wants to change Rsity's cut, you both have to agree to it, of course, but if Rsity decides to change exclusivity clauses, you can't grandfather it without agreement from the affected merchants. That's just wrong. Hell, even the banks have to give proper notification when they want to change banking fees so the patron can have the choice whether or not to accept them. Sure, the patron can leave (just as the merchant can go from here), but you can't just change the contract and then throw the merchant out. That would be, as you can see in just this thread, a really bad move.