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.

Timeline

The request has a deadline of 14 days.

Requested information

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.

• Have you received the return?*
• Yes, will make changes to the order
• Yes, but not accepted (Please specify why)
• Return not received
• Add reply (optional)
• Attachment (optional)

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.

Timeline

The request has a deadline of 14 days.

Requested information

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:

• A document or documents containing the following details:
  • The tracking ID of the delivery
  • The address to which the order was delivered
  • The Date the order was delivered
  • The delivery status of the parcel (optional)
  • One piece of additional evidence to prove the entire order was delivered. Options include, but are not limited to, packing list or delivery note, weight of items and parcel etc.
  • A signature from the customer showing the item was received (for orders >750 EUR) (optional)

Intangible Goods

Please provide us with the following details:

• A document or documents containing the following details:
  • The date the order was sent
  • The email address the order was sent to (optional)
  • The IP the order was sent to (optional)
  • Any evidence the item was received, accessed or used (optional)

On Demand/Food Delivery

Please provide us with the following details:

• A document or documents containing the following details:
  • The customer's name (optional)
  • The date and time of delivery (optional)
  • The delivery status of the parcel (optional)
  • The address to which the order was delivered (optional)
  • The delivery choice (optional)

In addition to the requests related to each category, the below information is required for all Goods not received disputes

• The tracking ID of the delivery
• The shipping carrier used to deliver the package
• The Date the order was delivered

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.

Timeline

The request has a deadline of 14 days.

Requested information

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).

• Add reply (optional)
• Attachment (max. 7.3MB)

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.

Timeline

The request has a deadline of 14 days.

Requested information

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.

• Add reply
• Attachment (max. 7.3MB)

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.

Timeline

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.

Requested information

The information requested depends on the type of order.

For Services, we will ask you:

• If the service has already been used
• If you have been in contact with the customer
• How you delivered the service (for example via email)

For Physical Goods, we will ask you:

• To provide shipping information and proof of delivery
• If you have been in contact with the customer
• Some customer-specific information

For Tickets and Travel, we will ask you:

• To cancel or refund the order if possible
• If the ticket has already been used
• If you have been in contact with the customer
• Some customer-specific information
• How you delivered the ticket (for example via email)

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.

Timelines

As suspected high-risk orders are very time-sensitive, the deadline for such a request is set to 96 hours.

Expected actions

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.

Requested information

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.

Timeline

Requested information

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:

• Return the items following the Partner return policy in case of returns
• Reach out to you in case of other dispute reasons (goods not received, faulty goods and incorrect invoice)

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.

*This rule may not apply in some cases.

** If a chargeback was raised via the customers bank, escalation will be immediate.

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:

• Klarna expects the Partner and customer to communicate in order to resolve the dispute without Klarna intervention (e.g., return completed, invoice adjusted).
  • If resolved, Klarna closes the dispute and updates the customer invoice accordingly.
  • If not resolved in time, Klarna proceeds to request evidence from the Partner, where you can defend the dispute.

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:

1. Evaluate the information provided by the customer. This will help us determine if a dispute is still valid or if it should be rejected.
2. If the dispute is valid, Klarna’s support team will reach out to you via the Disputes App in Merchant Portal or the Disputes API depending on your integration with Klarna and request additional information from your side.
3. You must submit supporting evidence within a specified timeframe called Request deadline.

Request deadline

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:

• First request for Purchases Unauthorized up to 7 days (168 hours).
• First request for all other dispute reasons up to 14 days (336 hours).
• For each follow-up request sent to you, you have a deadline of 7 days (168 hours).

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:

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:

• The customer wants to present new evidence to defend a dispute.
• The customer disputes the invoice for different reasons e.g. goods not received, return and in incorrect invoice.
• Connected to a concern and reevaluation of the case

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.

Disputes can only be raised during the corresponding time according to the dispute type

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.

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.

Merchants that have a direct agreement with Klarna and processed transactions with Klarna Payments, independently of the integration pattern and Payment Service Providers distributing Klarna services.

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

Resolved

Reversal - Merchant lost

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.