Visa updates and clarifications to dispute rules language

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Effective date: April 15, 2023

Visa updated the dispute rule language and made other revisions in the Visa Rules (PDF) for clarity and consistency. The changes listed below will be effective April 15, 2023.

Credits/reversals processed prior to a dispute
Visa has seen an increase in cases where a credit was processed prior to the dispute and the issuer did not address the credit. When a credit is processed, the issuer must provide information to confirm why the credit does not resolve the dispute. Explanations such as “credit does not apply” will not be accepted. This limited information can lead to a delayed resolution of the dispute and may also result in unnecessary fees associated with an arbitration filing.

With this update, when a credit was processed before the dispute, the issuer must either: apply the credit to the disputed transaction or provide the transaction identifier or acquirer reference number, the date of the transaction the credit was applied to, and why the credit does not resolve the dispute.

Examples of proper certification include, but are not limited to:
• This merchant credit is related to another purchase the cardholder made and then returned. Therefore, the merchant credit was applied to the transaction with acquirer reference number (ARN) 12345678901234567890123 that posted on August 22, 2022. The cardholder is due a credit for the transaction in dispute.
• The merchant processed four transactions and only two credits. The merchant credits were applied to a transaction with ARN 12345678901234567890123 that posted on June 5, 2022, and a transaction with ARN 12345678901234567890124 that posted on August 1, 2022. Since all four transactions were disputed as fraud, the cardholder is due credit for the two remaining transactions.

Additional rule updates
To promote more efficient dispute resolution, the supporting documentation, certification requirements, and miscellaneous updates listed below will be included with the revisions.

Dispute Condition Update
Dispute Condition 10.4: Other Fraud—Card-Absent Environment (Pre-Arbitration Processing Requirements) Obsolete language regarding digital goods and merchants assigned under Merchant Category Code (MCC) 5815—Digital Goods Media—Books, Movies, Digital artwork/images, Music will be removed.
Dispute Condition 12.5: Incorrect Amount (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide a copy of the transaction receipt with the correct transaction amount to support the dispute.
Dispute Condition 13.1: Merchandise/Services Not Received (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide the date a merchant cancelled for dispute scenarios where the cardholder did not receive services due to a merchant cancellation.
Dispute Condition 13.5: Misrepresentation (Dispute Rights) The Visa Rules for the Europe region will be aligned with the rest of the world.
Dispute Condition 13.6: Credit Not Processed (Invalid Disputes) The rules will be updated to confirm that disputes are not permitted for automated fuel dispenser transactions.
Dispute Condition 13.7: Cancelled Merchandise/Services (Dispute Processing Requirements) A requirement will be added for issuers to provide a detailed description of the merchandise or services purchased to support the dispute.
Compliance Conditions/Required Documentation Obsolete language regarding a Counterfeit Card Transaction with Incomplete Data will be removed.
Compliance Filing Conditions The requirement to provide the planned compliance filing date will be removed.