Arbitration
Disputes & risk
The final stage of the chargeback dispute lifecycle, where Visa or Mastercard adjudicates between the issuer and the acquirer. Arbitration filing fees range from roughly $250-$500 per case; the losing party also pays the network review fee. Most disputes are resolved at representment or pre-arbitration without escalating this far.
In practice.
Arbitration is the last stop of a dispute, where the card network itself rules on the case and charges filing fees to the losing side. Those fees usually exceed the disputed amount, so arbitration only makes commercial sense on large tickets or point-of-principle cases. Most merchants settle or absorb before this stage.
Related terms: Chargeback · Pre-arbitration · Representment
Disputes & risk