I don't think this constitutes bribery. The credit card fees would have to be paid by either the author's company or the vendor. They reached a deal where the v

I don't think this constitutes bribery. The credit card fees would have to be paid by either the author's company or the vendor. They reached a deal where the vendor would "refund" a portion of the credit card fees based on revenue milestones in the form of dinner. The author's company's product is social media education. To get their product out, the author's company used vendors to sell the product. The credit card purchase would come from the customer as a transaction to the vendor. Since the vendor was the seller, they would normally be responsible for the credit card fees. The vendor didn't want to pay the credit card fees, but the author's company didn't either. That's where the impasse came in.