Chargebacks and disputes

Learn how to handle the disputed amount during a chargeback.

Chargeback events

If a payment is reversed by a customer of your user, and the issuer has started a dispute process, Adyen withdraws the disputed funds from your marketplace's liable balance account. This transaction is called a chargeback.

You can either accept the chargeback on behalf of your user, or ask them to supply defense documents and upload them to Adyen.

If the chargeback is defended successfully, or the customer repays the funds, Adyen transfers the funds back to your marketplace's liable balance account. This transaction is called a chargeback reversal.

If the issuing bank declines the material submitted during defense of the original chargeback, the disputed amount is deducted from your marketplace's liable balance account again. This transaction is called a second chargeback.

This means that during the dispute process, the entire disputed amount is debited (chargeback or second chargeback) or credited (chargeback reversal) to your marketplace's liable balance account.

You can change this behavior by booking the disputed amount to any of the balance accounts in your marketplace, or even splitting it between the accounts.

Chargeback logic options

You can choose between three different ways to handle potential chargeback events:

Book the full disputed amount to your marketplace's liable balance account.
Book the full disputed amount to one of your user's balance accounts.
Book different amounts to different balance accounts, according to the split ratio defined in the splits array of your /payments or /sessions request.

You can define the chargeback logic on two levels:

Balance platform level: Set a default logic to handle all chargeback events. Contact our Support Team to configure a default logic on balance platform level.
Payment level: Set a logic for each payment. The chargeback event handling logic you set at payment level overrides any default logic set at balance platform level.

If you decide to set the chargeback logic on a payment level, you can do so in your payment or capture request. The chargeback logic sent in a capture request overrides the logic you specified in your payment request.

Configure the chargeback logic on payment level

To configure the logic for a potential chargeback, include the platformChargebackLogic object in the body of your POST /payments, /sessions, or /payments/{paymentPspReference}/captures request.

Depending on which logic you choose, send different parameters and values in the platformChargebackLogic object:

Parameter	Required	Description
`behavior`		The method of handling potential chargebacks. Possible values: deductFromLiableAccount: deducts the full amount from your marketplace's liable balance account. deductFromOneBalanceAccount: deducts the full amount from the balance account specified in `targetAccount`. deductAccordingToSplitRatio: deducts the funds according to the split ratio defined in the `splits` array.
`targetAccount`	Required if `behavior` is deductFromOneBalanceAccount	The ID of the balance account to which the disputed amount is booked.
`costAllocationAccount`		The ID of the balance account to which you want to book the fees incurred by the chargeback.

Examples

Select one of the tabs below to view an example payment request for each of the three chargeback logic types.

If you changed the default chargeback logic for your marketplace, you can still choose to book the disputed amount from your liable account for an individual payment.

To book the full disputed amount to your liable balance account for a potential chargeback event, specify the following parameters in the platformChargebackLogic object of your POST /payments, /sessions, or /payments/{paymentPspReference}/captures request.

Parameter	Required	Description
`behavior`		The method of handling chargebacks. Set this to deductFromOneBalanceAccount.
`costAllocationAccount`		The ID of the balance account to which the chargeback fees are booked. By default, this is your liable balance account.

Here is an example of a full payment request, where a potential chargeback will be booked to your marketplace's liable balance account.

You can book the entire disputed amount to a balance account of your choice. Use this logic if you want to make your user liable for all chargeback-related events on the payment. The currency and amount do not need to match those of the original payment.

To book the full disputed amount to your user's balance account for a potential chargeback event, specify the following parameters in the platformChargebackLogic object of your POST /payments, /sessions, or /payments/{paymentPspReference}/captures request.

Parameter	Required	Description
`behavior`		The method of handling chargebacks. Set this to deductFromOneBalanceAccount.
`targetAccount`		The ID of your user's balance account to which the disputed amount is booked.
`costAllocationAccount`		The ID of the balance account to which the chargeback fees are booked. By default, chargeback fees are booked to your liable balance account.

Here is an example of a full payment request, where a potential chargeback will be booked to your user's balance account.

The disputed amount is split between the balance accounts in the original payment according to the payment's split ratio. We only consider the ratio when splitting the chargeback, and not the amount. The amount and currency do not need to match the original payment.

Here is an example of a chargeback that is split using this logic:

A customer makes a payment of USD 100. The amount is split into 3 balance accounts:

USD 70 is booked to BalanceAccount1.
USD 20 is booked to BalanceAccount2.
USD 10 is booked to your liable balance account as your marketplace's commission.

The ratio of the split is 7:2:1.

The customer disputes USD 88 of this payment. Although the disputed amount does not match the original payment, it is debited from the balance accounts according to the original split ratio:

USD 61.60 (70% of EUR 88.00) from BalanceAccount1.
USD 17.60 (20% of EUR 88.00) from BalanceAccount2.
USD 8.80 (10% of EUR 88.00) from your liable balance account.

To book the disputed amount according to the split ratio, specify the following parameters in the platformChargebackLogic object of your POST /payments, /sessions, or /payments/{paymentPspReference}/captures request.

Parameter	Required	Description
`behavior`		The method of handling chargebacks. Set this to deductAccordingToSplitRatio.
`costAllocationAccount`		The ID of the balance account to which the chargeback fees are booked. By default, chargeback fees are booked to your liable balance account.

Here is an example for a full payment request, where a potential chargeback will be booked to the balance accounts in your marketplace according to the split ratio.

Reports

In the Balance Platform Accounting Report, the chargeback fee type is indicated before the transfer description, which matches the description of the original payment.