Understand dispute reasons, response timelines and disputes fees.
Disputes are a natural part of the post-purchase experience, allowing customers to raise concerns about their orders, such as returns, missing goods, or unauthorized transactions. Klarna’s Dispute Management system ensures these issues are handled in a fair, structured, and timely manner for both customers and Partners.
When a dispute is raise to Klarna, it is handle following a defined lifecycle, from the moment a customer submits a claim to the final resolution. And to understanding the dispute process is crucial to minimize financial losses, maintain customer trust, and stay compliant with Klarna’s terms.
Klarna supports several dispute types, each corresponding to a different kind of customer issue. Understanding these categories is essential for responding appropriately and providing the correct evidence during the resolution process.
Each dispute type triggers a specific response flow within Klarna, and understanding the nature of the issue is the first step toward resolving it efficiently.
Below are the most common dispute types:
The customer indicates they have returned one or more items from their order. They may be waiting for a refund or a corrected invoice. Partners are required to verify that the return has been received and to update the invoice accordingly.
Example: A customer returns shoes but the refund hasn’t been processed.
The request has a deadline of 14 days.
We will ask you if you received the return. If you did, please make sure to adjust the invoice of the related order. If you received the return but do not accept it, make sure to explain your reasoning in the comment section (´Add reply´).
Please note that if you select the option indicating that you will make adjustments to the statement you are committing to performing a refund equal to the disputed amount. If you do not perform said refund within 96 hours of responding, we will perform an automatic chargeback of the disputed amount.
The customer claims that the product or service never arrived. This may result from shipping delays, incorrect delivery, or failure to dispatch the item. The Partner is required to provide shipping details and proof of delivery.
Example: A package was marked as delivered by the carrier, but the customer reports non-receipt.
The request has a deadline of 14 days.
For dispute related to Goods not received you will be asked to select the delivery method that suits your order. These have been categorized into Physical Goods, Intangible Goods and On Demand/Food Delivery. Each category includes requests tailored to get the most relevant information pertaining to your dispute. Please note that you should only select the category that applies to your order.
Physical goods
Please provide us with the following details:
Intangible Goods
Please provide us with the following details:
On Demand/Food Delivery
Please provide us with the following details:
In addition to the requests related to each category, the below information is required for all Goods not received disputes
For information related to requirements, please refer to the Merchant Protection Program
The customer believes that the received product is damaged, defective, or does not match the description on the website. Klarna may ask for documentation from both parties, such as photos, product descriptions, or return tracking. For information about what qualifies as "Significant deviation", please see our Merchant Protection Program.
Example: A customer orders a black leather wallet but receives a fabric one instead.
The request has a deadline of 14 days.
These are usually the most complex disputes. Questions we commonly ask are “Have you been in contact with the customer?” and “Have you come to an agreement?” (such as refunding the faulty goods or resending the product).
The customer identifies an error in the invoice, for instance, being charged for the wrong item, incorrect amount, or an extra fee. Partners may be required to adjust or reissue the invoice.
Example scenario: A customer was billed twice for the same item.
The request has a deadline of 14 days.
We will request from you to prove that the invoice created by you is correct. For example if a customer claims that a discount is missing (backed up by evidence) you need to prove why the discount was not applicable.
The customer claims they did not authorize the purchase, suggesting potential fraud or misuse of their Klarna account. These disputes are prioritized and must be addressed quickly. Klarna may request fraud detection logs or customer verification data.
Example: A Klarna user sees an order on their invoice that they didn’t place
As we aim to support customers with this sensitive topic as quickly as possible, we send a request to you as soon as the dispute is raised. The request has a deadline of 7 days.
The information requested depends on the type of order.
For Services, we will ask you:
For Physical Goods, we will ask you:
For Tickets and Travel, we will ask you:
Please note that all fields are mandatory and need to be filled in in order to submit a response. For each follow-up request sent to you (with a maximum of 5 requests) you have a deadline of 7 days.
High-risk orders are not considered to be actual disputes, since these are not raised by our customers. These orders have been identified as potentially high risk, based on Klarna's internal alarm and flagging systems, set in place to protect you from potential fraudulent activities.
As suspected high-risk orders are very time-sensitive, the deadline for such a request is set to 96 hours.
If possible, please cancel this order. If the order was already shipped, please provide us with the shipping information and try to stop the order from being delivered.
If the order has already been shipped, please ensure to provide us with the shipping information for each shipment that was sent. If you have already submitted the shipping details to Klarna when you placed the order, there is no need to resend it to us. We will retrieve the information on our own once the request is finalized.
Each dispute in Klarna follows a structured lifecycle, from the moment a customer raises a claim to the final resolution, however this cycle may be different based on the dispute reason.
The dispute lifecycle ensures both the customer and Partner are given a fair opportunity to explain and resolve the issue. As a Partner, staying on top of dispute notifications, meeting deadlines, and submitting clear documentation are key to avoiding unnecessary chargebacks or fees.
When a customer raises a dispute, Klarna places the invoice on hold, which means that the customer is not required to pay while the dispute is active.
At this stage, Klarna will advice the customer to:
Following that, we ask the customer to provide us with the necessary information to raise a dispute.
No immediate action is required from the Partner at this stage unless Klarna specifically requests information or documentation.
The time period for you and your customer to resolve the dispute before Klarna steps in to support the investigation is called Resolution time and each dispute reason has a limited time.
Depending on the reason assigned, after a customer reports a dispute to Klarna you will have a defined Resolution time to resolve the case directly with the customer and with no additional intermediation from Klarna.
Dispute reason | Calendar days* |
---|---|
Unauthorized purchases | 3** |
All Other Dispute Types (Returns, Goods not received, Incorrect invoices, Faulty goods, Already paid) | 21 |
*This rule may not apply in some cases.
** If a chargeback was raised via the customers bank, escalation will be immediate.
Unauthorized purchases have a Resolution time of 3 days due to the urgency.
All disputes are visible in the Disputes App and via the API once they have been raised by the customer. See Disputes App in Merchant Portal for more information.
During this resolution time:
If you and the customer can not reach a solution on your own within the given Resolution time, and the the dispute remains unresolved, Klarna moves into the investigation phase following these steps:
A dispute request is always sent with a deadline. This period of time indicates until when you are able to submit a response for the requested information.
The deadline for the request follows these guidelines:
Failure to respond will lead to Klarna resolving the dispute in favor of the customer and you will no longer be able to defend the case.
Once all required information is reviewed, Klarna’s support team will make a decision and resolve the dispute accordingly with one of the following outcomes:
Status | Meaning |
---|---|
Closed – Won | The Partner’s evidence was accepted; the dispute is resolved. In this case the invoice is either adjusted by you or reactivated towards the customer and payments will resume. |
Reversal (Closed – Lost) | When the dispute has been closed in favor of the customer and Klarna has performed a Chargeback to you on the order. This happens if you have not been able to effectively defend the dispute or chosen not to defend the dispute (Accept Loss or no response). |
Rejected | When a customer has not provided the required evidence to proceed with the dispute it will be rejected. If there is information that is deemed incorrect or missing Klarna will reject the dispute before escalation, meaning Klarna will never start the investigation towards you. There are instances where Klarna’s Dispute Resolutions Team needs additional information from the customer following a response from you. If the customer fails to provide it before the deadline, the dispute is also rejected. In the event of a rejection the invoice is reactivated towards the customer and payments will resume. |
The closing reason Klarna assigns is important, as it may affect whether a dispute handling fee is charged to the merchant.
The Dispute processing will be communicated to you via the "Status" and "Closing Reason" visible on the Dispute Detail Page of the Dispute App. On the same page you can locate the date and time when the dispute was resolved.
The status indicates in what way a dispute was closed and informs you about the action that will follow.
Klarna offers customers the opportunity to challenge the outcome of a dispute and ensure that their concerns are properly addressed by allowing multiple disputes per invoice. This demonstrates Klarna's dedication to consumer protection laws and ensuring a fair resolution process. However, to prevent misuse of the dispute option, Klarna enforces certain boundaries and rules in the dispute process to maintain fairness, prevent abuse, and comply with regulatory obligations. This limits when and how many times customers are allowed to dispute and re-dispute an order.
There are different scenarios why an invoice gets disputed several times:
In order to support customers with these scenarios, Klarna has set a limit of three disputes per order. This limitation is also in place to align with industry standards and other payment providers.
Please note that there are a few exceptions where Klarna are required to raise a dispute outside of the Dispute Limitations. The exceptions include disputes raised in relation to:
Disputes can only be raised during the corresponding time according to the dispute type
Dispute type | 1st dispute |
---|---|
Returns | 180 days (from capture) |
Goods not received | 180 days (from capture) |
Incorrect invoice | 180 days (from capture) |
Already paid | 180 days (from capture) |
Faulty goods | 180 days (from capture) |
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:
In these instances, we will reactivate the payment with no charge towards you.
There are two types of Dispute fee structures:
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:
If applicable to you as detailed further below, we will start charging this fee type.
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.
Merchants that onboarded and processing transactions with Klarna Payments, Klarna Checkoutor that are offering Klarna through our Plugins for e-commerce platforms, Payment Service Provider or other Klarna Partner.
Market | Standard Fee | Excessive Fee |
---|---|---|
AT, DE, ES, IT, FR, BE, NL, IE, FI, PT, GR | EUR 15 | EUR 30 |
SE | SEK 150 | SEK 300 |
NO | NOK 150 | NOK 300 |
DK | DKK 150 | DKK 300 |
UK | GBP 10 | GBP 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 |
CH | CHF 15 | CHF 30 |
MX | 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).
Other merchants
Market | Dispute fee |
---|---|
AT, DE, ES, IT, FR, BE, NL, IE, FI, PT, 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 |
CH | CHF 7.50 |
MX | MXN 7.50 |
For transactions in any market not listed above, the Dispute fee will be SEK 75.
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.
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 |
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 |
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 |
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
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.