E-commerce sales and use exchange system and method
The invention provides a system and method for calculating, collecting and/or disbursing one or more third party payments owed to one or more third parties resulting from one or more electronic transactions occurring over a wide area network (WAN) between a customer and a merchant. The transaction concern one or more services and/or products provided by the merchant. The system and method require that the calculation of the amount owed to the third party occur at a WAN node that is different than and at a different locale than that of the merchant. By so doing, the merchant is not required to purchase and install equipment and/or software of the third party to which a payment is due. The present system includes a merchant node, third party payment processing node, financial network, and third party payment receiving node. A consumer conducts a transaction at a merchant node. As a result of the transaction, a third party may or may not be due a payment. The third party payment processing node determines whether such payment is due, calculates the amount of the third party payment, and/or authorizes payment of the third party payment. The financial network, which includes at least the merchant's acquirer bank, the customer's credit card issuing bank and the credit car association, then handles payment of the amount(s) due to the third party, the amount(s) due to the merchant and the amount(s) owed by the customer. The system of the invention can be a fee for service type of system wherein those (the merchant or the third party) that employ the system and/or method pay a fee, for example per transaction or per amounts collected and disbursed, to the provider of the claimed system.
1. A method for calculating at least one third party payment owed to a third party, the payment being owed as part of a wide area network transaction between a first party located at a first node of the wide area network and a second party located at a different second node of the wide area network, the method comprising the steps of:
a) the first party initiating a wide area network transaction thereby generating an information packet on a first computer system of the first party, said information packet containing transaction data;
b) the first computer system transmitting said information packet to a second computer system of the second party;
c) the second computer system determining whether or not said transaction data contains third party payment data and, if not, adding third party payment data to said transaction data unless the first party has registered any exemption to third party payment or the second party has opted out of third party payment; and
d) the second computer system transmitting to a third computer system transaction data including third party payment data if added in step c); wherein said first party is a transaction consumer, and said second party is a transaction merchant.
2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said wide area network is the Internet.
3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said third party is a government agency.
4. The method according to claim 3 wherein said third party payment is a tax owed to a government agency.
5. The method according to claim 3 wherein said taxes are selected from the group consisting of sales taxes, use taxes and value added taxes.
6. The method according to claim 1 wherein transaction merchant data is added to said transaction data.
7. The method according to claim 1 wherein said third party payment is calculated based upon transaction data contained in said information packet.
8. The method according to claim 7 wherein said calculation is performed by applying a predetermined mathematical formula.
9. The method according to claim 8 wherein said third party can directly modify said mathematical formula.
10. The method according to claim 1 wherein said information packet is generated by a billing software.
11. The method according to claim 1 wherein said first computer system is a merchant system or an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system.
12. The method according to claim 1 wherein said second computer system is selected from the group consisting of an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system, a credit card association system, and a banking system.
13. The method according to claim 12 wherein said banking system is a credit card issuing bank or a merchant acquirer bank.
14. The method according to claim 1 wherein said third computer system is selected from the group consisting of an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system, a credit card association system, and a banking system.
15. The method according to claim 14 wherein said banking system is a credit card issuing bank or a merchant acquirer bank.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transaction data comprises transaction financial data and wherein after step c), the method further comprises the step of:
c′) subtracting from transaction financial data said amounts owed to third party.
17. The method according to claim 16 wherein said financial data constitutes data for the transfer of funds.
18. The method according to claim 17 wherein said wide area network transaction constitutes a credit card transaction.
19. The method according to claim 17 wherein said wide area network transaction constitutes electronic payment transaction.
20. The method according to claim 17 wherein said wide area network transaction constitutes an e-commerce payment transaction.
21. The method according to claim 16 wherein said wide area network is the Internet.
22. The method according to claim 16 wherein said third party is a government agency.
23. The method according to claim 16 wherein said third party payments are selected from the group consisting of taxes owed to a government agency, sales taxes, use taxes, and value added taxes.
24. The method according to claim 23 wherein said third party payment equals zero.
25. The method according to claim 16 wherein said first computer system is that of a banking system.
26. The method according to claim 25 wherein said banking system is a credit card issuing bank or a merchant acquirer bank.
27. The method according to claim 16 wherein said first computer system is selected from the group consisting of a credit card association system, an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system and a merchant system.
28. The method according to claim 16 wherein said second computer system is selected from the group consisting of an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system, a credit card association system, and a banking system.
29. The method according to claim 28 wherein said banking system is a credit card issuing bank or a merchant acquirer bank.
30. The method according to claim 16 wherein said third computer system is selected from the group consisting of an Internet Payment Processing Gateway system, a credit card association system, and a banking system.
31. The method according to claim 30 wherein said banking system is a credit card issuing bank or a merchant acquirer bank.
32. The method according to claim 16 wherein said third computer system is the same as the second computer system.
33. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining comprises determining whether or not said transaction data contains third party payment data, whether or not the first party has registered any exemption to third party payment and whether or not the second party has opted out of third party payment, and, if not, adding third party payment data to said transaction data unless the first party has registered any exemption to third party payment or the second party has opted out of third party payment.