Dispute fees

In this article, you will be informed about the merchant Dispute fees and when they are applicable.

Last updated on Jul 3, 2024

What is the Dispute fee?

When a customer raises a dispute with us for the reasons set forth below, you (as the seller of the goods/intangible goods) are responsible for resolving this dispute. If you cannot reach an agreement with the customer within the time period specified below depending on the dispute reason, we will start the investigation and our Dispute Resolution team will step in and help solve the dispute. This will change the status to ´Investigation started´. In such a case, we reserve the right to charge you a dispute fee to compensate for additional operational costs on our side.

Whether you get charged with a Dispute fee or not is decided by the outcome of the dispute, not the escalation in itself, hence we do not charge a Dispute fee on the day of escalation. The fee is charged retroactively once we have determined the outcome of the dispute and who is liable.

You will not be charged a Dispute fee if a customer:

Is deemed to be at fault.
Cannot provide the information requested by Klarna to proceed.
Cancels the dispute on their own accord.

In these instances, we will reactivate the payment with no charge towards you.

Time to resolve the dispute (Resolution time)

Contingent on the customer providing Klarna with the relevant information to proceed with the dispute.

Counting from when the dispute is raised by a customer with Klarna, you and the customer have a minimum of 21 days to resolve the dispute, as stated below. The one exception being returns, where we count from the return date.

With that in mind, if you do not resolve a dispute within the time periods stated below, starting from when the Customer opens the dispute with Klarna, we may charge you a Dispute fee.

Dispute reason	Calendar Days
Returns	21*
Goods not received	21
Incorrect Invoice	21
Faulty Goods	21
Already paid	21
Unauthorized purchases	0

* Depending on the return date provided by the customer upon Klarna’s request. If the return date is <21 days from escalation we will automatically postpone the escalation date by 21 days from the return date, giving you enough time to be able to process the return.

Where to find disputes

You will find your disputes under the tabs ´Open disputes´ and ´All disputes´ in the Merchant Dispute App.

´Open disputes´ - Contains all disputes with the status ´Investigation started´, meaning disputes that have passed the Resolution time and may be charged with a Dispute fee.
´All disputes´ - Contains all disputes. Recently opened, escalated and closed going back 180 days.

To help you manage your disputes and make sure you do not miss a deadline, Klarna will notify you shortly after the investigation was started from Klarna (status `Response required´) and is available in `Open disputes´.

Example of timeline

Dispute fee structure

There are two types of Dispute fee structures:

Type 1

The fee increases if the amount of escalated disputes relative to the amount of captures generated is deemed as excessive for a pre-set period:

Merchants will be charged the excessive dispute fee if their dispute escalation rate exceeds 1.5% for at least 3 consecutive months, during which time such merchants have processed over 100 orders.
Merchants will be moved back to the standard dispute fee if their dispute escalation rate falls under 1.5% for at least 3 consecutive months.
For those merchants that have several MIDs, please note that the dispute escalation rate is measured on a MID level rather than as an average across all MIDs. This means that if you have more than one MID, the dispute fee applicable to each MID may vary based on how each MID performs individually.

If applicable to you as detailed further below, we will start charging this fee type.

Type 2

You are charged a flat fee regardless of how many disputes escalate on a monthly basis relative to the amount of orders you generate.

Eventually, we will only have one dispute fee type, in line with the structure and pricing of the Type 1 dispute fee.

More information regarding which Dispute fee and structure applies to you, below.

Dispute fee per market

Type 1 fee - Merchants that onboarded with Klarna Payments, Klarna Check-Out or that are offering Klarna through a Payment Service Provider or similar

Market	Standard Fee	Excessive Fee
AT, DE, ES, IT, FR, BE, NL, IE, FI, PRT, GR	EUR 15	EUR 30
SE	SEK 150	SEK 300
NO	NOK 150	NOK 300
DK	DKK 150	DKK 300
UK	GPB 10	GPB 20
PL	ZL 60	ZL 120
US	USD 15	USD 30
CA	CAD 20	CAD 40
AU	AUD 25	AUD 50
NZ	NZD 25	NZD 50
CZ	CZK 350	CZK 700
RO	RON 70	RON 140
CHE	CHF 15	CHF 30
MEX	MXN 125	MXN 250

For transactions in any market not listed above, the Dispute fee will be SEK 150 (Standard fee) or SEK 300 (Excessive fee).

Type 2 fee - Other Merchants

Market	Dispute fee
AT, DE, ES, IT, FR, BE, NL, IE, FI, PRT, GR	EUR 7.50
SE	SEK 75
NO	NOK 75
DK	DKK 75
UK	GBP 6
PL	ZL 30
US	USD 8
CA	CAD 11
AU	AUD 12
NZ	NZD 12
CZ	CZK 150
RO	RON 35
CHE	CHF 7.50
MEX	MXN 7.50

For transactions in any market not listed above, the Dispute fee will be SEK 75.

Applying the Dispute fee

Once the investigation is over and all sides have been considered, the dispute is closed. It is at this point that the Dispute fee is applied, based on the Closing Reason.

Below you will find a breakdown of the Closing Reasons and which result in a Dispute fee being charged in accordance with the conditions set forth in the agreement and specified above.

Rejected

Closing reason	Dispute fee
Customer_did_not_provide_enough_details	No
Customer_did_not_provide_valid_proof	No
customer_did_not_reply_to_request	No

Resolved

Closing reason	Dispute fee
customer_cancelled_dispute	No
merchant_provided_valid_shipping_details	No
merchant_informed_about_invalid_return	No
merchant_informs_that_invoice_is_correct	No
merchant_has_not_received_payment_or_payment_to_3rd_party	No
merchant_has_refunded_payment_to_customer	Yes
merchant_solved_the_dispute_with_the_customer	No
merchant_informed_about_invalid_dispute	No
reactivated_invoice_statement	No
fully_paid_prior_to_escalation	No
fully_paid_after_escalation	No
refund_issued_by_merchant_after_escalation	Yes
incorrect_payment_details_used_refunded	No
klarna_resolved_due_wrong_dispute_reason_chosen	No
dispute_opened_under_wrong_dispute_reason	No
merchant_has_refunded_payment_to_klarna	No
dispute_automatically_closed	No
fully_paid	No
klarna_resolved_dispute_in_merchant_favor	No

Reversal - Merchant Lost

Closing reason	Dispute fee
merchant_did_not_reply_to_dispute_request	Yes
merchant_did_not_follow_klarnas_shipping_policy	Yes
incorrect_invalid_delivery_in_physical_store	Yes
service_digital_goods_klarna_does_not_take_risk	Yes
merchant_did_not_adjust_statement_on_klarnas_request	Yes
merchant_did_not_perform_promised_refund	Yes
could_not_send_another_request	Yes
merchant_accepted_the_loss	Yes
shipped_to_non_approved_address	Yes
merchant_did_not_follow_klarnas_return_policy	Yes
goods_sent_without_tracking_number	Yes

How is the Dispute fee communicated in the Merchant Dispute App

In order to uphold transparency, we are dedicated to providing you with clear and accessible communication regarding the resolution of disputes. This includes sharing the reason behind the closure of a dispute. Below you will find a view of what is displayed in the Merchant Dispute App when a fee has been applied.

In the Dispute Detail Page we communicate

Closed on - Date and time when the dispute was closed
Status - Outcome of the dispute
Reason - Closing Reason explaining why the outcome was reached
Chargeback amount - Amount chargebacked on the order, whether partial or full (if merchant lost)
Dispute fee - displayed if dispute was charged with a Dispute fee

In the example provided, the dispute was ultimately lost because the merchant failed to respond to the request before the deadline, as stated in the ‘Reason’ field. As a result, the status of the scenario was updated to ´Merchant lost´. This led to a chargeback and a Dispute fee of EUR 7.50.