Marketplace or BNPL chargeback: who pays for the dispute?

Who pays for a disputed marketplace or BNPL order depends on where the money was debited and who decides the case. On Stripe Connect the charge type settles it, while eBay, Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm each set their own windows and rules, so check every channel's terms before a dispute arrives.

Who pays on a Stripe Connect platform?

The charge type decides who pays. With direct charges, Stripe's documentation says the disputed amount is debited from the connected account's balance, so the seller bears it. With destination and separate charges, the platform's balance is debited, and the platform may try to reverse the transfer to recover the money from the seller.

For legacy Express and Custom accounts, the platform is responsible for disputes and fraud. A platform that has not worked out which of these applies has not decided who is carrying its fraud risk. Merchants who assume the intermediary absorbs the loss are often wrong, and the terms that say so sit in documentation few people read until a dispute arrives.

If you sell through a platform, ask which charge type it uses. That single choice decides whether a lost dispute comes out of your balance or the platform's.

What changes when a marketplace has its own buyer protection?

A marketplace with its own buyer protection adds a second process on top of the card network's. On eBay, a buyer has 30 calendar days after estimated or actual delivery to report an item not received. The seller then has 3 business days to respond to the case.

eBay treats a chargeback after a refund as abusive buyer behavior. Sellers therefore face two clocks and two decision makers, and the short marketplace window is the one most likely to be missed. Check open eBay cases every business day so the 3-day window never runs out unseen.

How do Klarna disputes work?

Klarna runs its own dispute system, and card-network rules do not govern it. Stripe's documentation says local payment methods such as Klarna and PayPal typically give customers up to 180 days to dispute, against 120 for cards, and that the provider decides. For Klarna payments through Stripe, the customer can dispute up to 180 calendar days from capture.

The first stage is an inquiry, which has a 21-day window. A full refund during the inquiry avoids a dispute fee. Once the inquiry becomes a chargeback, refunds can no longer be issued.

If the case escalates, you have 12 calendar days to submit evidence, or 5 for fraud, in one round only. Klarna's evidence guidance adds a less obvious risk: if the customer used your return label, you are liable even when the parcel is lost in transit. Check how you offer returns on pay-later orders before a dispute shows you which way the liability falls.

What about Afterpay and Affirm?

Afterpay and Affirm allocate risk in different ways. Adyen's documentation says Afterpay takes the full fraud risk when its checks pass. Merchants have 13 days to defend or accept, and no response is treated as a loss.

Affirm sets conditions on refunds instead. It refunds only if the merchant receives the returned goods and processes the refund within 120 days of purchase, and interest the customer has already paid is not refunded. A merchant who refunds late, or refunds without getting the goods back, is outside the conditions Affirm sets.

For pay-later cases specifically, why BNPL disputes land on the merchant explains when the loss ends up with you. For Afterpay in particular, put the 13-day date in the diary the day the notice arrives, because silence counts as accepting the loss.

Takeaway: what to do this week

1. Ask your platform which charge type it uses. Direct charges debit your balance; destination and separate charges debit the platform's, which may then reverse your transfer.
2. Write a short sheet for each channel. Give the response window, who decides, what a refund does and what evidence the provider wants.
3. Refund Klarna inquiries you will not fight. A full refund inside the 21-day inquiry avoids the dispute fee, and refunds stop once the inquiry becomes a chargeback.
4. Recheck the dates at the start of each quarter. Several of the source pages carry no date, so recheck them.

Sources: Stripe Docs, "Connect charges" (undated); eBay, "Money Back Guarantee" help page (undated); Stripe Docs, "Klarna disputes" (undated); Klarna Docs, "Merchant evidence gathering" (undated); Adyen Docs, "Afterpay chargebacks", new flow from 25 August 2025; Affirm Docs, "Refunds" (13 November 2025); Stripe Docs, "How disputes work" (undated). All checked 24 October 2026.