Determine Level 2/3 data eligibility for American Express OptBlue transactions versus a direct Amex merchant account

Steps

1. Check whether the merchant is onboarded under OptBlue (typically businesses with a smaller estimated annual Amex charge volume processed through a third-party acquirer) or holds a direct Amex merchant account.
2. For OptBlue merchants, do not build Level 3 line-item submission into your Amex integration — Level 3 data is not available on OptBlue and provides no interchange benefit there.
3. For OptBlue merchants, know that Amex supports Level 2 data at the transaction level, but submitting it does not reduce Amex interchange the way it does for Visa/Mastercard commercial cards.
4. For merchants with a direct Amex account (US-based, USD-settled), confirm eligibility before investing engineering effort in a full Level 3 line-item data integration for Amex specifically.
5. Keep your Level 2/3 submission logic network-aware: continue submitting full Level 2/3 data for Visa and Mastercard commercial-card transactions where it does yield lower interchange, while treating Amex as a separate, lower-benefit path.
6. Communicate this limitation to finance/procurement stakeholders who may expect uniform Level 2/3 savings across all card brands.