Chargeback
Also known as: Dispute, Payment dispute
A chargeback is a card payment that the cardholder's issuer returns to the merchant's acquirer after a dispute, pulling the money back unless the merchant successfully contests it. Visa's rules call it a dispute.
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Example
A customer says they never received a €150 order. The issuer files a dispute. The amount leaves the merchant's takings while the merchant sends proof of delivery.
A chargeback is what happens when a cardholder goes to their bank instead of the shop.
Visa's rules define a dispute as a transaction that an issuer returns to an acquirer. The acquirer answers with a dispute response, a clearing record presented back to the issuer. The money follows the outcome. The merchant, through the acquirer, bears the loss if the issuer's claim stands.
It is a scheme process between banks. The merchant is not a party to it, but pays for it.
Reasons are familiar: goods not received, not as described, a payment the cardholder did not make, a duplicate charge. Each has its own evidence and its own time limits, and the scheme rules set them.
Do not confuse it with a refund. A refund is the merchant's choice. A chargeback is the bank's act. Merchants who refuse a fair refund often end up with a chargeback, a fee and a worse outcome.
There is a separate legal route for unauthorised payments. Under PSD2 Article 73, the payer's own bank must refund an unauthorised transaction immediately, and no later than the end of the following business day, unless it has reasonable grounds to suspect fraud and reports its grounds to the authority. How the bank then recovers that money from the merchant's side is a matter of scheme rules.
Disputes are not bad luck. Most are decided on evidence: the chip or PIN record, the delivery proof, the log of the conversation.
Nor is an approved payment a final one. An authorisation says the card can pay. It does not say the sale will stand.
Keep the paper trail. It is the cheapest insurance a merchant has.