This merchant account is not permitted to create Merchant Initiated Billing Agreement

[CashControl]

Hello,
Until now, we have always used our PayPal sandbox for a web application and everything ran smoothly.
Now we want to use PayPal in an app as well and have created a sandbox account for ExpressCheckout via Braintree SDK and designed the integration accordingly https://developer.paypal.com/braintree/docs/guides/ec-braintree-sdk/server-side/node.
When we try to make a payment with PayPal, we get the following error message:

Error Domain=com.braintreepayments.BTHTTPErrorDomain Code=2 "client error" UserInfo={com.braintreepayments.BTHTTPURLResponseKey=<NSHTTPURLResponse: 0x2807f15a0> { URL: https://api.sandbox.braintreegateway.com:443/merchants/z46jv69c89z4dv34/client_api/v1/paypal_hermes/... } { Status Code: 422, Headers {
"Cache-Control" = (
"no-cache"
);
"Content-Encoding" = (
gzip
);
"Content-Security-Policy" = (
"frame-ancestors 'self'"
);
"Content-Type" = (
"application/json; charset=utf-8"
);
Date = (
"Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:10:18 GMT"
);
"Strict-Transport-Security" = (
"max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
);
"Transfer-Encoding" = (
Identity
);
Vary = (
"Accept-Encoding, Origin"
);
"X-BroxyId" = (
"e9088ef7-d985-4423-9765-f977f7b30c4b"
);
"X-Content-Type-Options" = (
nosniff
);
"X-Frame-Options" = (
SAMEORIGIN
);
"X-XSS-Protection" = (
"1; mode=block"
);
"paypal-debug-id" = (
94af36e31cca4
);
"referrer-policy" = (
"strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
);
"x-download-options" = (
noopen
);
"x-permitted-cross-domain-policies" = (
none
);
"x-request-id" = (
"e9088ef7-d985-4423-9765-f977f7b30c4b"
);
"x-runtime" = (
"0.620855"
);
} }, NSLocalizedFailureReason=client error, com.braintreepayments.BTHTTPJSONResponseBodyKey=<BTJSON:0x280aeec80 value:{
error = {
debugId = 94af36e31cca4;
errorDetails = (
{
message = "This merchant account is not permitted to create Merchant Initiated Billing Agreement";
name = "REFUSED_MARK_REF_TXN_NOT_ENABLED";
}
);
errorMessage = "Authorization error --- REFUSED_MARK_REF_TXN_NOT_ENABLED:This merchant account is not permitted to create Merchant Initiated Billing Agreement";
errorName = "AUTHORIZATION_ERROR";
paypalHttpStatus = 403;
};
}>}
The PayPal Merchant ID is: YRPE7TAWKPA34

[MTS_Justin]

Hello,

As per the returned error "REFUSED_MARK_REF_TXN_NOT_ENABLED" which indicates reference transactions were not enabled on the sandbox account being used to process the request.

I've enabled reference transactions on the sandbox account, so please make a new attempt.

Thanks !

[Gustavv]

Good day. We are having the exact same issue. Could perhaps help us?

[MTS_Justin]

Hello,

Please share a copy of the API response you received back and the merchant id for your sandbox account so I can review it.

Thanks !

[alvarolb]

I have the same problem, I need to enable reference transactions on my account, but it seems impossible. I talk to support via Message Center or email, and they redirect me to Merchant support. But merchant support response is that I should talk to support. It seems that nobody knows what I need, so, I do not know what else I should do, or who I should talk. Any help @MTS_Justin !? Thanks!

[MTS_Justin]

Hello,

Reference transactions are not enabled on PayPal accounts by default and need to be requested for your account if you're interested in using the functionality provided by this product.

I cannot enable reference transactions for "live" or "production" accounts, only for sandbox testing accounts.

You would need to contact our customer service team with this type of request.

https://www.paypal.com/smarthelp/contact-us

Thanks !

[deepakmaurya · Accepted solution]

@MTS_Justin Can you please Enable the reference transactions for my sandbox account? What information do you need?

[MTS_Justin]

Hello,

Reference transactions should be enabled on all sandbox accounts by default.

If you attempt a reference transaction and experience an error message, please let me know the error message and share the "merchant id" for your sandbox account.

Details on how to retrieve the merchant id for a sandbox account can be found in thread pinned to the top of this forum titled "how to report a sandbox issue".

Thanks !

[videostew]

@MTS_Justin 

Hi, I have the same problem on live and the error messages are below.

 $response: stdClass Object
(
    [name] => AUTHORIZATION_ERROR
    [debug_id] => 5861388a8c59
    [message] => Authorization error
    [information_link] => https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/api/#AUTHORIZATION_ERROR
    [details] => Array
        (
            [0] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => REFUSED_MARK_REF_TXN_NOT_ENABLED
                    [message] => This merchant account is not permitted to create Merchant Initiated Billing Agreement
                )

        )

)

merchant ID: YQE5DEDFSRSPN

Can you help me out with the issue?

[MTS_Justin]

Hello,

The debug id provided is from a request made within our production environment rather than our sandbox testing environment.

We cannot enable reference transactions on production accounts as noted above, you need to reach out to our customer service team to determine if your account is eligible to use this feature.

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us

Thanks !