MC Arbitration Ruling

Mastercard will wait to rule on a case until one of the following occurs:

  • 10 calendar days from the case filing submission date has passed.
  • The acquirer rejects the case filing within the Mastercom Case Filing Application.

Mastercard will decline to rule on a case when the issuer did not follow all filing requirements. Examples of incorrect filing include but are not limited to:

  • The case has insufficient documentation to enable Mastercard to rule on the case and assign responsibility for the disputed amount.
  • The case was filed beyond the appropriate filing period.
  • Documentation was not in English or accompanied by an English translation.

Mastercard will review the case, the applicable rules, and render a decision. Mastercard will post the decision in the Mastercom Case Filing Application and generate Global Clearing Management System (GCMS) “On-Behalf” Fee Collection/1740 messages using message reason code 7800 or an MCBS Billing Event to debit and credit the disputed amount to the appropriate Customers.


Outbound Arbitration Ruling

When a reject response is received from the acquirer or the acquirer submits a rebuttal to an arbitration case and a user decides to wait for an association ruling in Arbitration Response, this flow is executed.  A Pending Arbitration Ruling assignment is displayed while a response is awaited.  If Mastercom is enabled, the assignment will automatically resolve when a response is received in queue and the ruling status will be retrieved.  If Mastercom is not enabled, a user must execute the Ruling Received action and record the ruling.  If the ruling is in favor of the issuer, Arbitration Accounting is executed, the flow is exited and the case is resolved.  If the ruling is in favor of the acquirer, the system will check to see if Final Processing is complete.  If it is, this means that final credit has already been issued to the account holder and a loss adjustment will be processed in the Resolve stage.  If it has not, the Final Investigation flow is executed to prompt a user to deny or write-off the remaining recovery amount.





Inbound Arbitration Ruling

When an inbound arbitration case is received from the acquirer in MC Inbound Arbitration, this flow is executed..  A Pending Arbitration Ruling assignment is displayed while a response is awaited.  If Mastercom is enabled, the assignment will automatically resolve when a response is received in queue and the ruling status will be retrieved.  If Mastercom is not enabled, a user must execute the Ruling Received action and record the ruling.  If the ruling is in favor of the issuer, the flow is exited and the case is resolved.  If the ruling is in favor of the acquirer, Arbitration Lost accounting is executed to return the merchant funds debited.  The system will then check to see if Final Processing is complete.  If it is, this means that final credit has already been issued to the account holder and a loss adjustment will be processed in the Resolve stage.  If it has not, the Final Investigation flow is executed to prompt a user to deny or write-off the remaining recovery amount.



The issuer may accept the arbitration case at any time before a ruling is received by selecting Other Actions > Accept.  Executing this action assumes liability for any remaining recovery amount and renders the case closed.


Referenced From

Rule(s)MCArbitrationRuling, MCInboundArbitrationRuling