Review pre-arbitration response and escalate to arbitration

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read

    • After you raised a pre-arbitration request in the Chargeback stage of Mastercard transaction dispute, review the response and decide whether to accept, reject, or escalate the pre arbitration to arbitration.

    Before you begin

    Role required: sn_bom_credit_card.dispute_agent or sn_bom_credit_card.dispute_agent_connector.

    Important:
    For the agent connector role to work, it must be combined with one of the CSM industry data model roles. For more information, see Roles and Personas.

    About this task

    If the agent is not satisfied with the merchant’s pre-arbitration response, the existing request is escalated to arbitration. One of the following scenarios is possible:

    • Accept the pre-arbitration: Review and accept the response, then close the chargeback.
    • Reject without escalation: Review and reject the response, but choose not to proceed with arbitration.
    • Escalate to arbitration: Respond by escalating the existing pre-arbitration to arbitration for further resolution.

    If Card Data Security is installed and configured, Attachments in the contextual side panel will handle files differently in transaction records. For more information, see Manage attachments in Card Data Security.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Financial Services Operations > Workspace.
    2. Select the lists icon (lists icon).
    3. In the Lists tab under Card disputes service cases, open the case list.
      • For your assigned cases, select Assigned to me.
      • For all dispute cases, select All.
    4. In the list, select which case you want to work on.
      If you want to work on a case that isn't assigned to you yet, you can assign it to yourself by selecting Assign to me.
    5. Select the Playbook tab.
    6. In the Processing tab, select the transaction ID.
    7. Select the Review pre-arbitration response and escalate to arbitration task in Dispute Workspace.
    8. On the form, fill in the required fields and any other related information.
    9. If the Dispute response isn't retrieved, select Get pre arbitration response to fetch the merchant response.
      Note:
      In case the merchant is providing documents with the pre-arbitration response, check the Activity section for the document attachment or a download failure message.
    10. Optional: If a download failure message is displayed in the Activity work notes, select Get acquirer document to fetch the pre-arbitration response document from the merchant.
    11. Optional: Select Add file to attach supporting documents to the task.
      Note:
      • You must upload a single .zip file whenever you submit documents to Mastercard.
      • When integrated with Mastercard's Mastercom APIs, the system automatically compresses multiple attachments into a single zip file. It also validates attached files against Mastercard requirements for file type and size, and alerts you when any attachment doesn’t meet Mastercard requirements. For more information, see Mastercard document requirements.
    12. Select one of the following options from the Response outcome drop-down.
      OptionDescription
      Unresolved Select this option if the cardholder isn’t happy with the merchant's response on pre-arbitration and wants to escalate to arbitration. The Escalate to arbitration drop-down is displayed. Select one of the following options:
      • Yes to proceed with arbitration. Select Continue and Escalate to arbitration.
        Note:
        If an error message is displayed in the Activity work notes, the Escalate to arbitration button displays again to retry.
        The Arbitration response received drop-down is displayed.
        • Select Yes if you have received a response from the merchant.

          The next task Review arbitration response is displayed.

        • Select No if you have not received a response from the merchant. The case goes in the favor of the cardholder and the transaction moves to Financial adjustments 1.
      • No to end the chargeback, then the transaction moves to the Financial adjustments 2. The task is then marked as Complete.
      Resolved Accept the chargeback response and resolve the dispute. The transaction moves to Financial adjustments 1.
      Note:
      In case of integration with Mastercard's Mastercom APIs, if the task state changes to Document Upload Pending after you select Escalate to arbitration, then the attached document isn't uploaded to Mastercard.
    13. Optional: To reupload the document, delete and replace your attachment with one that meets Mastercard's requirements, then select Upload document.
      For more information, see Mastercard document requirements.
    14. Optional: If you want to stop and withdraw the case for any reason, such as you've selected a wrong option, select Withdraw case.
      The task is marked as Closed Complete and a new Review pre-arbitration response and escalate to arbitration task is automatically generated.
      Note:
      This action is available only in case of integration with Mastercard's Mastercom APIs.

    What to do next

    • When you escalate the pre-arbitration to an arbitration, the request is sent to Mastercard and the state of the task changes to Awaiting External Info.
    • Once a response is received from the merchant, the Arbitration response received value is marked as Yes. The next activity Review arbitration response is displayed.
    • If you don’t receive a response from the merchant, then the case goes in favor of the cardholder and the appropriate task is displayed based on the policy.