Handling disputes
How customer disputes work when you settle Klarna orders with virtual cards
4 min read
When you settle a Klarna order with a virtual card, Klarna issues the card you charge through your own acquirer. That makes Klarna the card issuer on the transaction. So when a customer disputes their purchase, the dispute reaches you the same way any other card dispute does: as a chargeback raised by the issuer under the card scheme's rules and passed to you by your acquirer. There's no separate Klarna dispute for you to answer.
If you settled Klarna orders with virtual cards before August 17, 2026 and still have open Klarna disputes, see Merchant Card Service dispute migration.
- 1.The customer raises an issue with Klarna about their order.
- 2.Klarna gathers the customer's account of the problem and any supporting evidence.
- 3.Klarna reviews the case and decides whether it's a valid dispute.
- 4.If it is, Klarna raises a chargeback against your acquirer for the transaction on the virtual card.
- 5.You receive the chargeback through your normal chargeback process.
- 6.You accept it, or defend it through your acquirer.
- 7.The card scheme decides the outcome.
sequenceDiagram
autonumber
participant A as Customer
participant B as Klarna
participant C as Merchant's Acquirer
participant D as Merchant
A ->>B: Raises an issue with the order
B ->>A: Requests evidence
B ->>B: Reviews and validates the case
B ->>C: Raises chargeback
C ->>D: Passes on the chargeback
D ->>C: Accepts or defends
Not every customer complaint becomes a chargeback. Klarna collects the customer's evidence, checks it, and rejects cases it doesn't consider valid disputes. Only genuine disputes are passed on to your acquirer, so the cases that reach you have already been filtered.
This review takes time. It can run to a few weeks from the point the customer first raises the issue, which means a chargeback may arrive some time after the order itself. There's no fixed timeframe.
Your notification is the chargeback from your acquirer. It arrives through your normal chargeback process, and it's the only notification you get. Klarna sends nothing for these orders, so don't wait on Klarna channels. For virtual card orders, these carry nothing:
- The Merchant Portal Disputes App
- The Disputes API
- Klarna dispute webhooks
There's also no Klarna dispute fee on these orders. If the chargeback goes against you, the cost is the chargeback debit on your card settlement.
You accept or defend the chargeback through your acquirer, using the same representment process and evidence you'd use for any other card dispute. The card scheme's timelines apply, and your acquirer's documentation governs the deadlines, the evidence formats, and how you submit them.
Because Klarna doesn't send you a dispute request, your earliest opportunity to resolve a problem is your own customer contact — a return request, a delivery query, a complaint in your support inbox.
Handling those directly is the most effective thing you can do. Resolve the issue with the customer, and process any refund on the virtual card exactly as you would a refund on any other card. Klarna's review takes the customer's account of what you did into consideration, so a case you've already resolved is far less likely to ever become a chargeback.
Avoid double refunds
If an order has already been charged back, reconcile it before issuing a further refund on the virtual card, so the same order isn't credited twice.
- For questions about the dispute process itself, contact your Klarna account team or Klarna merchant support.
- For chargeback mechanics — deadlines, evidence formats, and how to submit a representment — contact your acquirer.
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