Compelling Evidence 3.0: what qualifies and how to use it

Compelling Evidence 3.0 is a Visa dispute rule that lets an online merchant beat a fraud chargeback from a customer who has bought before. If you can show two earlier undisputed purchases by the same customer, made 120 to 365 days before the dispute, with matching data such as the same device or IP address, Visa treats the 10.4 fraud dispute as invalid, and liability shifts to the issuer. People shorten it to CE 3.0. Visa's own documents call it the evolution of compelling evidence.

It exists because of first-party misuse, Visa's name for a cardholder who reports fraud on a purchase they actually made. Our guide to friendly fraud covers why that happens and how to spot it. This guide stays on the mechanics of CE 3.0: which disputes it covers, which earlier purchases qualify, which data has to match, and how to set up your checkout so you have the records when a dispute arrives. Rules are as of October 2026.

What is Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0?

It's a set of conditions that, when met, flips a card-absent fraud dispute in your favor. Visa's current rules describe it as a framework merchants use to qualify for liability protection on these disputes. Visa's October 2022 FAQ puts the effective date at pre-arbitration attempts processed on or after April 15, 2023.

You don't manage that pre-arbitration step yourself. You give your processor the evidence, and your acquirer submits it. As Visa's chargebacks page puts it, your evidence goes to your acquiring bank, which passes it to the issuing bank.

Why it matters: before CE 3.0, a fraud claim from a real customer was hard to answer. The cardholder said "not me," and unless you had 3-D Secure authentication or a strong delivery record, there wasn't much to send. CE 3.0 lets your customer's own history do the talking.

Which disputes does Compelling Evidence 3.0 cover?

It's built for one Visa dispute condition: 10.4, Other Fraud, Card-Absent Environment. That's the code an issuer uses when a cardholder says they didn't authorize an online, phone, or mail order. Visa's dispute guide lists the common causes of a 10.4, and one of them is an unclear merchant name that makes a real purchase look fraudulent. That's the friendly fraud CE 3.0 was written for.

For anything else, you need different evidence:

If you're unsure which code you're looking at, our guide to chargeback reason codes lists them. CE 3.0 is one of the four cases our page on managing chargebacks names as worth fighting.

What counts as a qualifying prior transaction?

Two earlier purchases that pass every test below. Visa's dispute guidelines for merchants and its acquirer FAQ set the criteria:

1. There are at least two of them.
2. They were made with your business, the same merchant as the disputed sale.
3. They're at least 120 days old and no older than 365 days, counted back from the dispute date.
4. Neither has an active fraud report.
5. Neither has an active fraud dispute.
6. They share at least two data elements with the disputed sale, as described in the next section.

The date window trips people up, so here's a worked example. An online coffee roaster in Austin gets a 10.4 dispute on September 15, 2026, for a $96 order. The customer's account shows four earlier orders:

Two orders fall in the window, and neither was ever reported as fraud or disputed, so the roaster passes the date test. Notice that half the history doesn't count. The July order is too recent and the August 2025 one is too old. A customer who buys once a year may never have two orders inside the window at the same time.

Which data elements have to match?

At least two of four, and one of the two has to be the IP address or the device ID. Visa's acquirer FAQ names the four: customer login ID, delivery address, device ID or fingerprint, and IP address. The matches are between the earlier purchases and the disputed one.

Back to the Austin roaster. The December and April orders came from the same laptop as the disputed order and shipped to the same address. The IP address changed because the customer switched internet providers in the spring. Device ID plus delivery address is two matches, one of them the device, so the roaster has what Visa's rules ask for.

That's the practical lesson in the table: don't rely on IP address alone. Home and mobile IP addresses can change between orders, while a device ID usually changes less often. Capture both, and capture a login whenever you can.

How do you respond to a dispute with Compelling Evidence 3.0?

Work through it in order. Most of the effort is finding the records, which is why the setup in the next section matters more than the response itself.

1. Confirm the dispute is Visa 10.4. CE 3.0 doesn't apply to other codes.
2. Pull the customer's order history from your store, by account, email, or card.
3. Keep only orders 120 to 365 days before the dispute date, with no fraud report or dispute against them.
4. Compare the login ID, delivery address, device ID, and IP address on those orders with the disputed one.
5. If at least two qualifying orders share two elements, including the device ID or IP address, send your processor the order records, the matching data, and a short note pointing to Compelling Evidence 3.0.
6. Respond before your processor's deadline, not the network's.
7. Log the result, along with the reason code and amount.

There's also a way to use the same evidence earlier. Visa's Order Insight shares order details with issuers before a dispute is filed, and an April 2026 update lets merchants use Compelling Evidence 3.0 within Order Insight to share evidence with banks. Stopping a claim before it becomes a dispute is better than winning one: Visa's monitoring ratio leaves out disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions. Our chargeback ratio guide explains why that exclusion matters.

How do you prepare your checkout for Compelling Evidence 3.0?

You can't collect this data after the fact. If your checkout didn't save the device ID on a December order, no amount of effort in September will bring it back. Set this up now:

• Save the device ID or fingerprint and the IP address on every order, tied to the order number and the card transaction.
• Offer accounts and make logging in easy. Guest checkout gives up the login ID, one of only four elements.
• Store delivery addresses in a consistent format, so "123 Main St." and "123 Main Street" don't look like different places.
• Keep order data for well over a year. The window reaches back 365 days from a dispute that may itself arrive months after a sale.
• Make the data searchable by card transaction, because that's what the dispute notice gives you.
• Check that your privacy policy tells customers you collect device and IP data to prevent fraud.
• Ask your processor whether it can attach CE 3.0 data to dispute responses and whether Order Insight is available to you.

Clearo's online payments include fraud screening with AVS, CVV checks, and velocity rules, which deal with the other half of the problem: stolen cards from people who've never bought from you. Our guide to ecommerce fraud prevention covers that side.

Does Mastercard have its own version of Compelling Evidence 3.0?

Not under that name. Mastercard's First-Party Trust program lets merchants provide compelling evidence to issuers to reduce cardholder confusion and spot first-party fraud, which aims at the same problem. For card-not-present fraud claims, Mastercard also says merchants can submit the IP address of the device used for the purchase.

The good news is that the data is the same. A checkout that saves device ID, IP address, login, and delivery address for Visa's rules gives you what you need for Mastercard too.

What mistakes sink a Compelling Evidence 3.0 response?

Most failed CE 3.0 responses fail on a detail you can check in five minutes. Before you send one, run through this list:

1. An order outside the window. Count the days from the dispute date, not from today, and drop anything under 120 or over 365.
2. An earlier order with its own problem. If it has an active fraud report or fraud dispute against it, it doesn't qualify.
3. The wrong two elements. Login ID plus delivery address feels convincing, but without the device ID or IP address it doesn't meet Visa's test.
4. The wrong dispute. A 13.1 "not received" claim needs delivery proof, however loyal the customer.
5. A late response. Hunting through old logs takes time, and your processor's deadline won't move for it.

When won't Compelling Evidence 3.0 help?

More often than you'd hope. Be honest about your customer base before you spend a week on setup.

• First-time buyers. No history, no CE 3.0. If most of your fraud disputes come from new customers, your problem is screening, not evidence.
• Guest checkout without device data. Two elements are hard to reach with only an address.
• Once-a-year buyers. As the Austin example shows, the 120 to 365 day window can miss them.
• In-store sales. Card-present fraud runs on chip and liability shift rules instead.
• Real stolen-card fraud. If a thief used the card, the data shouldn't match, and it shouldn't win.
• Small orders. If pulling records takes an hour, a $15 dispute isn't worth it.

Here's a quick way to size it. A subscription box company in San Francisco gets 30 Visa 10.4 disputes a month at $60 each, or $1,800. It checks a month's worth and finds that 12 came from customers with two qualifying orders and matching device data. That's 12 × $60 = $720 a month it can contest with a strong case, plus whatever Order Insight stops before the disputes are filed. For a subscription business, that's worth the setup. For a store that sells one big item per customer, it may not be.

Next step

Check whether your checkout saves device ID and IP address on every order today. If it doesn't, that's the first fix, because every order you take without it is one you can't point to next year. Clearo's payment processing includes chargeback management tools, and every client gets a dedicated rep who can walk through a 10.4 dispute with you. To see what disputes cost you now, send a recent statement for a free statement review, or contact us to talk through your setup.