Disputes
PPRO provides a unified, merchant-centric approach to managing disputes across all payment methods.
This allows for a single, consistent interface for managing disputes across all payment providers (Visa, Mastercard, Wero, AfterPay, etc.), with standardized reason codes, evidence requirements, and webhook events.
Why Disputes Occur
Consumers raise a dispute when they are dissatisfied with a transaction or the service provided. Most disputes fall into one of four main categories:
| Category | Description | Common Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Fraud | Unauthorized payments | "I didn't make this purchase", "My card was stolen" |
| Product/Service Issues | Problems with goods/services | "Item never arrived", "Service not as described", "Product was defective" |
| Processing Errors | Technical or billing mistakes | "Charged twice", "Wrong amount", "Canceled subscription but still charged" |
| Authorization Issues | Payment approval problems | "Never authorized this payment", "Recurring charge after cancellation" |
Disputes Lifecycle
PPRO has standarised a dispute into a single dispute lifecycle so that you only need to implement once to support all payment methods:
Full dispute lifecycle
A dispute at PPRO is the naming convention used to describe the entire process from a consumer raising an issue with their transaction to card networks clawing back funds and ultimately merchants challenging or representing with evidence to fight cases. In other dispute management systems the dispute is often synonymous with chargeback, but at PPRO we have separated the terms as follows:
- Dispute: A formal challenge raised by a consumer against a payment through their bank, card network, or local payment method provider. Each challenge results in the creation of a dispute record
- Chargeback: The clawback of funds from PPRO, normally via a settlement file process, by the payment provider from a merchant due to a dispute
A dispute consists of four phases: pre-dispute, dispute, pre-arbitration and arbitration. A dispute will only ever be created in the pre-dispute or dispute phase and never directly into pre-arbitraiton or arbitration.
Each phase of the dispute lifecycle can consist of zero or more actions and capabilities. These are described in more details in the disputes resolution flow page.
The PPRO global API will notify you via webhooks each time a dispute is opened, action taken or update received.
Finally, the PPRO global API will notify you via webhook whenever a chargeback or chargeback reversal is settled with PPRO. The different chargeback timings are explained in more details in the chargebacks page.
Supported Payment Methods
The following payment methods are currently available for dispute management at PPRO:
Each payment method page describes the phases they use, chargeback timing, timelines as well as the actions and capabilities available to merchants.
Updated 13 days ago