Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0: New rules explained

Visa began automatically qualifying transactions for CE3.0 using Visa Secure or Visa Data Only across all major regions from October 17, 2025. 

Visa first introduced Compelling Evidence 3.0 in April 2023 as part of ongoing efforts to tackle first-party fraud. It allows merchants to use a cardholder’s purchase history to prove that a disputed transaction is legitimate. This helps merchants to reduce chargebacks and financial losses due to wrongful claims of payment fraud. 

This article explains what Compelling Evidence 3.0 is, how it works, and the benefits for merchants.

What is Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE3.0)?

Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE3.0) is the latest version of guidelines around challenging payment disputes flagged with the fraudulent reason code 10.4. In essence, it’s a mechanism for a merchant to provide evidence that a cardholder participated in a card-not-present transaction claimed to be fraudulent. In this way, CE3.0 helps merchants to reduce their fraud ratio.

Previously, the rules around compelling evidence were vague and not necessarily weighted in the merchant’s favor. But now you can benefit from CE3.0 post-dispute via the representment process. However, it is important to note that you may still have to pay chargeback fees, and the dispute still counts towards your chargeback ratio.

How does Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 work for merchants? 

The new rules for CE3.0 allow merchants to share two previous transactions that provide proof of a purchasing history between them and the cardholder, which Visa defines as a ‘historical footprint’. It proves the disputed transaction was legitimate. At Checkout.com, a merchant submits this evidence at the post-dispute stage. 

If the dispute has already been escalated to a chargeback, the merchant must challenge it via the representment process. To do this, you must identify and submit two eligible historical transactions to your acquirer – via the Checkout.com Dashboard or API – who will respond on your behalf via Visa Resolve Online (VROL).

The two historical transactions must meet the following criteria:

• They must be between 120 and 365 days older than the date of the disputed transaction (the 120-day limit does not apply if the other undisputed transactions were original credit transactions)
• They must both be undisputed and not have been reported as fraudulent
• At least two data elements (user ID, IP address, shipping address, device ID / fingerprint) must match across all three transactions, and one of these two must be the IP address or device ID or fingerprint

If validated, the chargeback will be reversed and, while your dispute ratio will be affected, your fraud ratio will remain the same. 

In order to use CE3.0 to tackle disputes effectively, merchants should remember to:

• Collect sufficient payment data, including device information and IP addresses.
• Use consistent billing descriptors; the transactions you submit as compelling evidence must match the disputed transaction, so make sure that the first six characters of your billing descriptors are identical for every transaction.

Which disputes are eligible for Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0?

CE3.0 applies only to disputes marked with Visa reason code 10.4: Other Fraud: Card-Absent Environment. This reason code could indicate two things:

• The cardholder did not authorize or participate in a card-not-present (CNP) transaction
• Or that a fraudulent CNP transaction was completed using an invalid account number or without authorization 

Advantages of Visa CE3.0

Visa CE3.0 has a range of advantages for merchants, including:

• Challenging friendly fraud disputes efficiently to avoid ambiguity and save time
• Helping to reduce chargebacks and fraud ratios, and reduce the risk of entering the “excessive” VAMP threshold (which can lead to fines)
• Reducing loss of revenue by tackling chargeback fees and refund costs
• Speeding up the representment process, and reducing workload ‍

How does Visa Compelling Evidence impact VAMP?

The updated Visa policy confirms that TC40 (fraud) disputes successfully resolved via CE3.0 are excluded from Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) calculations. This is beneficial because it can help to avoid hitting the “excessive” threshold, which would lead to additional fees.

Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 with Checkout.com

Checkout.com offers a number of products that can help you challenge fraudulent disputes, reduce chargebacks, and protect your revenue. 

Authenticate your customers' payments with 3D Secure to reduce fraud and meet regulatory requirements. With 3DS, you can embed the authentication process in your checkout flow, making for a better user experience. 

Our product Intelligent Acceptance promptly determines whether a transaction necessitates 3DS authentication and automatically incorporates any available 3DS authentication information into the payment request if it was omitted initially. This ensures compliance by making sure the transaction meets the required authentication standard and reduces fraud.

Additionally, Fraud Detection Pro, which is built into our platform, will identify and block suspicious transactions from ever occurring, protecting your business from fraud and resulting chargebacks while increasing your acceptance of legitimate transactions. 

Our Rapid Dispute Resolution product, offered in partnership with Verifi, automatically resolves Visa transaction disputes before they become chargebacks. It does this by quickly issuing a refund to cardholders for disputes that meet criteria defined by you, helping you to save time and money, and improve your customer experience. 

If you’re an existing merchant of Checkout.com, you can find out more about Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 on our support page.