Originally Posted by webmasterchecks

Websites were doing things visa/mc didnt want them to do, so they set up a process that if a site falls under X criteria, then they have to follow these rules/guidelines. They set up a registration fee for the extra work/resources it would take them to follow those new processes.

The rules have been around for 6+ years and they seem to be achieving what they had set out to do. They probably set it up to get paid from each processor because if a site is sent up from one processor or another, they still have to take the time to review each site individually.