Chargebacks are a consumer protection mechanism that enables customers to dispute items charged to their account or payment card. They usually occur when a customer is unable to obtain a refund directly from the merchant. If successful, the funds are returned to the account holder and the disputed amount is recovered from the merchant. 


Chargebacks are provided by participating card schemes and payment service providers. It is not a legal instrument and thus available regardless of the cardholder's or merchant's jurisdiction. Merchants can dispute a chargeback with the assistance of their acquirer. The merchant's acquiring bank and the cardholder's bank follow rules issued by the corresponding bank network or card association to resolve the dispute. If the acquirer prevails, it will receive the funds from the issuer and transfer them back to the merchant.


Merchants will be informed of an in-progress chargeback by their acquiring bank. As there is no direct interaction between the cardholder and the merchant in this situation, no updates to the transaction are sent to the APEXX API.


Asynchronous transaction status updates - including chargeback notifications - can be implemented using reconciliation files and webhooks.


Reconciliation data files are supplied to APEXX by a number of acquiring banks. Please reach out to your Implementation Consultant if you require this functionality.


Please see the related articles for more information.


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Using Reconciliation Files for Post-Authorisation Updates

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