How Rapid Dispute Resolution works
The issuer enters the dispute in Visa Resolve Online, where a decision engine checks it against the merchant's rules, for example the dispute category and the amount. On a match the merchant accepts liability without anyone touching the case: the funds move from the merchant's acquirer to the issuer and the cardholder is credited. With no match, the dispute carries on as usual.
The rules sit in an engine hosted by Verifi or, through the RDR Decision API, in the merchant's own logic. The Visa Core Rules of 18 April 2026 define RDR as a service that lets merchants and payment facilitators automate the acceptance of liability, and give the acquirer no right of reply to a dispute accepted this way.
What RDR changes for a merchant
The sale is lost and each case carries a fee, so the rules are aimed at disputes not worth contesting: low amounts, or categories where the evidence is weak. What the merchant gains is certainty and a cleaner record.
Verifi states that disputes resolved before a chargeback is initiated do not count against Visa's dispute ratio, and that a case resolved by RDR cannot be disputed again. Visa's 2025 fact sheet on its monitoring programme likewise leaves disputes resolved through pre-dispute solutions out of the VAMP ratio, depending on the timing of the data.
RDR, CDRN or an Ethoca alert?
- CDRN
- Verifi's alert network: the merchant decides each case itself, within 72 hours, and non-Visa cards are covered too. RDR decides at once, for Visa only.
- Ethoca alert
- The alert service on the Mastercard side. The merchant refunds through its own systems after the alert arrives.
- Refund
- Started by the merchant before any dispute. RDR is triggered by the issuer's dispute.
Where Rapid Dispute Resolution shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- Fraud & riskReal-time fraud scoring, limits and case management, with the risk engines you already trust.
- BackofficeOne console to run the platform: customers, money, risk, content and staff permissions.
Platforms that need it
Guides that go deeper
Where it is written
The laws and standards this page's facts come from.
- Verifi, CDRN and RDR for sellers
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 18 April 2026: section 11.2 and glossary
- Visa, Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program fact sheet, 2025
General information, not legal advice: what applies to you depends on your services and your market.