How a Wero dispute actually works
iDEAL was final the moment funds settled. Wero runs on the same instant rails but is not a guaranteed payment method. The customer can contest a transaction for up to 120 calendar days, through a pre-dispute, chargeback and arbitration process defined by the EPI scheme.
Pre-dispute
The customer opens a pre-dispute in the Wero or banking app within 120 calendar days of the transaction, or 540 days when delivery or the service falls after that window. The scheme keeps the banks out of this stage by design: it runs between the customer and you, in the dispute portal your PSP gives you access to. You get a short window to respond, in practice 7 calendar days, and 30 calendar days in total to reach an agreement. If you do not take part, the customer can request a chargeback straight away.
Chargeback
Without an agreement, the customer requests a chargeback within 30 calendar days of the pre-dispute ending. Their bank checks the request against the scheme rules and weighs what you file through your PSP: tracking, proof of delivery, order confirmation, terms, and the communication history. Evidence filed after the deadline does not count, and a case you never answer is lost by default.
Arbitration
When the two banks cannot agree, the case moves through pre-arbitration to EPI, whose ruling binds both sides. This stage is rare and it is the expensive one. Scheme fees rise at every escalation, from a few euros for a dispute accepted at the start to several hundred for an arbitration case decided against you, and your PSP passes them on.
What losing costs
A lost case reverses the transaction, so you lose the order amount and the goods, plus the scheme and PSP fees attached to the case. Fraud and dispute ratios are monitored, and crossing a threshold moves you into a compliance programme, a rolling reserve on your payouts, or a high-risk classification that takes months of clean ratios to leave.
Where merchants lose Wero disputes
The structural risks that appear the moment a national scheme with no chargebacks becomes a European scheme with them.
Friendly fraud on delivery
The customer received the order and claims it never arrived. Under iDEAL you negotiated that directly and kept the money while you did. Under Wero a bank rules on evidence, and the funds move if your evidence is thin.
Empty-box and partial-delivery claims
The parcel arrived and the customer claims the product was missing or wrong. Track and trace proves movement, not contents. Order weight, packing records and a signed receipt are what carry a case like this.
Nobody owns the pre-dispute queue
The stage that settles most cases sits outside the banks by scheme design, so it does not arrive as a chargeback notification from your PSP. Someone has to open the portal, answer within days, and attach the right evidence.
Unauthorised claims run on a separate clock
Strong Customer Authentication protects you, but an unauthorised transaction is reported to the customer's own bank, with a window of up to 13 months from the debit date. The authentication evidence still has to surface in the response.
Subscriptions, instalments and one-click consent
After the first authentication, follow-up transactions run without new SCA, and the customer can withdraw consent at any point, which makes every transaction after that unauthorised. Each consent type Wero adds is another failure mode to cover.
Ratios you cannot see
Fraud and dispute ratios decide whether you face reserves, higher fees or high-risk status. If Wero, card, Klarna and PayPal disputes each live in their own portal, you learn you crossed a threshold when the payout changes.
Start preparing today
Your existing disputes on Klarna, cards and PayPal are the rehearsal for Wero. Same evidence model, same deadlines, same consequence for silence.
Wero brings chargebacks to the rails that never had them.
We map where your Klarna, card and PayPal disputes stand today, which evidence survives a bank review, and who owns the pre-dispute window once Wero volume starts landing.
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