Disputes | Welcome to Afterpay Documentation

Overview

Customers can raise and manage disputes related to non-delivery of goods directly through the Afterpay Customer Portal. Merchants can manage and respond to these disputes via the Disputes API and the Afterpay Business Hub. If a resolution can’t be reached, Afterpay can step in to adjudicate.

At this time, Afterpay supports only product_not_received as a dispute reason.

Dispute lifecycle

A customer raises a dispute through their Afterpay dashboard or app and provides evidence to support their case.
Afterpay notifies the merchant using methods including email, the Business Hub, API, and webhooks.
The merchant responds to the dispute. They can accept the dispute (which closes the dispute in the customer’s favor) or contest the dispute by providing evidence via the API or the Business Hub.
If the merchant provides evidence, the dispute is returned to the customer. The customer can either accept the merchant’s decision (which closes the dispute in the merchant’s favor) or can reject the merchant’s evidence.
If the customer rejects the merchant’s evidence, an Afterpay agent steps in. The agent decides the outcome of the dispute based on the available evidence. Both parties are notified of the decision.

Merchant Side Dispute Lifecycle Diagram

Dispute windows

Afterpay updates dispute statuses and sends dispute notifications according to the following time frames:

Window	Description	Time frame
Dispute open	The maximum window of time (from the transaction date) for a dispute to be opened. 60 days after the statement date, dispute claims may be denied.	120 days
Merchant’s evidence submission	The allowed time between the merchant being notified of a dispute and the final time for evidence submission.	13 days
Afterpay’s decision	The allowed time from the moment of evidence submission to Afterpay’s final decision.	30 days

Dispute statuses

Afterpay supports the following dispute statuses:

Status	Description
`needs_response`	Afterpay has created the dispute and notified the merchant, but the merchant has not taken action.
`under_review`	Merchant has submitted evidence to Afterpay, and it is currently under review.
`won`	The evidence submitted is accepted by Afterpay and the dispute is won by the merchant. Note that this is a terminal state.
`lost`	The evidence submitted is rejected by Afterpay and the dispute is lost by the merchant. Note that this is a terminal state.
`merchant_refunded`	Merchant has issued a refund. If the refund is equal to or greater than the dispute amount, then this is a terminal state.
`merchant_voided`	Merchant has canceled all or a portion of the order. If the voided amount is equal to or greater than the dispute amount, then this is a terminal state.

Closing reasons

A closing reason indicating how the final decision on the dispute was reached is displayed to the merchant. The following closing reasons are accepted:

Merchant-facing Closing Reason	Description
`merchant_accepted`	Merchant accepted the dispute.
`evidence_accepted`	Merchant submitted evidence which was accepted. The dispute was closed in the merchant’s favor.
`evidence_rejected`	Merchant submitted the evidence but it was rejected and the dispute was closed in the customer’s favor.
`deadline_expired`	Merchant failed to submit evidence for the dispute and the submission window timed out. Dispute was closed in the customer’s favor.
`customer_cancelled`	Customer withdrew the dispute and therefore it was closed in the merchant’s favor.

All dispute records are saved in the Afterpay system and are accessible through the Dispute APIs; dispute records are not deleted.

In financial reporting, there will be a separate record for a dispute. Order ID, Dispute ID, financial changes (+/-) are included in the record. Afterpay only gathers funds from the merchant after the merchant loses the dispute.