Handling disputes

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.

Customers raise disputes in the Klarna app, against a specific purchase. They pick one of these reasons:

Ordinary dissatisfaction isn't a dispute. An item that doesn't fit, or that the customer simply doesn't like, doesn't count as faulty or not as described.

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.

The customer has to back up their claim with evidence that fits the reason, for example:

In every case, the customer also tells Klarna when and how they contacted you and what you said. Klarna doesn't contact you during the review, so your side of the story reaches Klarna only through what the customer submits. That's why resolving problems directly with the customer matters. See Keeping dispute volume down.

Klarna rejects a case when:

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.

Klarna files a chargeback only for disputes it accepts. Each one is filed under the card scheme reason that fits the evidence, such as merchandise not received, not as described, credit not processed, incorrect amount, or processing error.

Unauthorized purchase claims aren't passed to you as chargebacks. Klarna handles them through its own fraud process.

From there, the chargeback follows your typical process, described below.

Your notification is the chargeback from your acquirer. It arrives through your typical 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:

There's no Klarna dispute fee on these chargebacks. If the chargeback goes against you, the cost is the chargeback debit on your card settlement.

Other fees in your Klarna agreement still apply. If you're enrolled in the Risk Program, for example, its fees are invoiced together with your Klarna fees as usual.

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.