Acquirer Dispute

An acquirer dispute is a card payment dispute viewed from the side of the acquirer, the bank or licensed firm that processes card payments for a merchant. When a cardholder disputes a charge, the card issuer raises a chargeback through the card network, and the acquirer receives it, debits the amount from the merchant's funds, and tells the merchant. If the merchant has evidence, the acquirer submits a chargeback representment to the issuer within the scheme's deadline, and may later take the case to pre-arbitration or arbitration. The term is also used for disputes the acquirer itself starts against an issuer, for example over a rule breach in a compliance case. The acquirer carries the financial risk if the merchant cannot pay, which is why it monitors dispute levels closely. The mirror process on the cardholder's side is the issuer dispute.