iGaming chargebacks: evidence and response workflow

What should happen when a dispute arrives?

Adyen’s dispute documentation describes a process in which a merchant can accept or defend a dispute, with outcomes assessed through the payment process. Requirements and timing vary by method and scheme.

Assign a case owner immediately and record the exact deadline shown by the provider. Link the dispute to the original transaction and any related complaint or refund. A shared inbox without ownership makes it easy to miss a time-limited response.

Which evidence should be collected?

Collect evidence that answers the actual dispute reason. A general screenshot of the customer’s account may not address an allegation about authorisation, duplication or a missing refund.

• The relevant payment and merchant references.
• Transaction status and any refund or reversal records.
• Applicable customer communications and accepted terms.
• Relevant authentication or service records where permitted.
• A concise explanation connecting the evidence to the reason code.
• A check that prohibited or irrelevant personal data is removed.

Why is privacy review necessary?

Adyen explicitly restricts sensitive data in defence materials, including identity-document copies and unrelated personal records. The appropriate evidence pack should therefore be curated, not produced by exporting the whole customer file.

Build a redaction and review step into the response process. Check filenames, attachments and screenshots as well as the narrative. Only authorised staff should access the full investigation file; the external submission should contain what the applicable process permits and needs.

Should every chargeback be defended?

No. Assess the facts, available evidence, scheme rules and commercial cost. A defence is not justified merely because the operator dislikes the claim, and meeting document requirements does not guarantee success.

If a transaction has already been refunded, reconcile that event before responding. If an operational error caused the dispute, address the customer outcome and underlying defect. Do not submit inaccurate evidence or treat a valid customer concern as automatically fraudulent.

How should outcomes improve the business?

Reconcile dispute debits, fees, reversals and final outcomes to provider reports and the ledger. Track reason categories and repeated operational failures rather than only the win rate.

For example, repeated “refund not received” disputes may reveal a broken handover between support and payments. Fixing that handover can be more useful than producing increasingly elaborate defence packs. Keep the complaint and payment-dispute teams connected while respecting their different procedures.