Originally Posted by MobiusMike

BRANDS, as the liable parties to the financial institutions (or aggregators) who acquire their transactions have several challenges to hurtle in order to maintain their processing, especially those who have direct relationships with acquiring banks.

1st, the BRAND has to maintain website compliance, PCI compliance and then manage to an aggressive VISA/MC mandated domestic chargeback threshold (it's more lenient internationally).

Further, the BRAND has to manage their affiliate traffic. Not every affiliate simply "get's traffic to the front door" as stated here earlier, but some engage in various sketchy business practices.

Rogue affiliates who create chargebacks for the BRANDS add to an already significant challenge for the BRAND who is struggling to make sure that their chargebacks don't exceed their thresholds. An account closed for chargebacks can put a BRAND out of business or at the very least increase their cost for processing by having to move to an aggregator at a much increased cost (sometimes double their processing costs with a direct merchant account).