Mastercom & Collaboration Help Banks Manage Disputes… but That’s Good for Merchants, Too.
As a merchant, you want to do right by your customers. You make every effort to provide the best service possible, along with competitive prices and quality products. You have nearly 100% customer satisfaction ratings.
And yet… you still get hit with chargebacks.
Chargebacks are a serious pain point. And, as a merchant, you’ll get stuck with the lion’s share of the burden. You’re not entirely alone, though.
Take the average Mastercard chargeback, for example. Mastercard developed the Mastercom dispute resolution platform to specifically address this problem. So, what is Mastercom? How can it help? Let’s take a closer look.
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- Mastercard Chargeback Rules: Guidelines & Procedures
- What are Mastercard Chargeback Fees? The Rundown for 2025
- Mastercard Chargeback Time Limits: The 2025 Guide
- How Mastercard First-Party Will Fight Video Game Disputes
- The Merchant's Guide to Mastercard Debit Card Chargebacks
- Stops Chargebacks With Mastercard First-Party Trust Program
What is Mastercom?
- Mastercom
Mastercom is an end-to-end dispute management system that enables tracking of Mastercard disputes throughout their complete lifecycle. All events for any given dispute can be tracked within a single claim.
[noun]/mastər • käm/
Chargebacks create headaches for all the stakeholders in the dispute lifecycle. To lighten the load on financial institutions (issuers and acquirers), Mastercard introduced Mastercom, a powerful tool providing end-to-end assistance in creating, responding to, and managing disputes.
Mastercom is Mastercard’s end-to-end dispute resolution platform. It’s a single, consolidated platform designed for simpler dispute handling.
Mastercom acts as a central communications hub for issuers and acquirers to interact, streamlining the entire chargeback process. From start to finish, it helps things run more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Right now, you might be thinking, “That’s great for banks, but I’m a merchant. How is this going to help me?” The answer is, “indirectly.” Mastercom was created as a tool for financial institutions, but as we’ll see, it offers benefits for all parties involved.
Learn more about Mastercard chargebacksWhat Does Mastercom Do?
The Mastercom platform plays a role in fraud reporting, case filing, and managing the Mastercard chargeback lifecycle.
With Mastercom, issuers and acquirers have a consolidated portal to speed up submissions for some less-complicated disputes. It can be a big help in judging which party has financial responsibility for the chargeback. It also helps facilitate the seamless movement of funds between the issuer and acquirer.
Mastercom won’t fight chargebacks for you. But, according to the card network, it offers “limited but essential functionality” for managing various stages of disputes. That includes responding to claims at different points in the chargeback process (pre-arbitration, arbitration, and compliance), uploading compelling evidence documentation for contesting chargebacks, and generating reports. According to the card network, Mastercom:
- Supports every step of the dispute lifecycle, including case filing
- Enables participation in Collaboration
- Aids in the creation of chargebacks
- Enables management of all steps under one claim
- Allows issuers to report confirmed fraud into the Fraud & Loss Database
- Allows fee collection messages
- Enables notifications
Another tool, Ethoca Consumer Clarity, helps reduce disputes by providing cardholders with detailed purchase information. While not branded as a Mastercard product, Ethoca is owned by Mastercard, meaning Consumer Clarity can be accessed through the Mastercom API.
What Is Mastercom Collaboration?
Collaboration, a tool within Mastercom, works like an early warning system for chargebacks, notifying you that a cardholder has disputed a charge. This gives you time to review the claim and see if you can resolve it directly. Merchant participation in Collaboration is mandatory.
Mastercom has been in place for years. However, a new workflow was introduced to the platform in September of 2022, called Mastercard Collaboration. This workflow aims to give merchants a chance to resolve a dispute before it becomes a formal chargeback.
Collaboration works like an early warning system for chargebacks by notifying you when a cardholder is disputing a charge. That gives you time to review the claim and see if you can resolve it directly (typically through a refund, rather than a chargeback).
Participation in Collaboration is mandatory, either through Mastercom directly or through a third-party facilitator.
How Does Collaboration Compare to Chargeback Alerts?
It’s comparable to chargeback alerts, in that Mastercard Collaboration gives merchants advance notice of pending disputes, allowing them to avoid a chargeback. However, Collaboration only works with Mastercard transactions. In contrast, alerts can function across different card networks.
Notifications provided through Mastercom allow for transactions to be refunded either by the merchant, or by Mastercard directly on the merchant's behalf. With chargeback alerts, refunds are facilitated by the solution provider instead.
But, it’s also worth noting that participation with Mastercom Collaboration demands compliance with rules as determined by Mastercard. Failure to comply with these rules could lead to the merchant getting hit with a noncompliance fee.
| Chargeback Alerts | Mastercard Collaboration |
| Available for transactions conducted using all major card networks | Applies only for Mastercard transactions |
| Provided by a third-party service | Provided directly by Mastercard |
| Managed by a merchant, or through a third-party service provider | Managed through acquirers and Mastercard |
| Transactions are refunded by the merchant, or the merchant’s service provider | Transactions are refunded by the merchant, or by Mastercard |
| A fee is assessed for each chargeback alert | A fee is assessed for every Mastercom notification, and additional fees may apply for noncompliance |
What Are the Benefits of Mastercom Compliance?
Mastercard claims it offers a variety of measurable benefits for banks, including increased automation, faster dispute resolution, decreased chargeback volume, and lower cost. Admittedly, Mastercard presents these as benefits to banks. But, as you can see, all of these perks would hold true for merchants as well. In other words: everybody wins.
Merchant will see:
- Shorter Resolution Time: Dispute resolution in days, not weeks.
- Lower Chargeback Rate: Advance notice lets merchants prevent and pre-empt disputes.
- Streamlined Diagnostics: Resolve problems faster with quick access to comprehensive data.
- Reduced Costs: Save on processing costs, avoid potential merchandise loss.
- Better Customer Experience: Faster resolution helps prevent bad reviews.
Through Collaboration, you’ll be able to skip the chargeback process by making informed dispute decisions. And you’re guaranteed to have time to do so. Mastercom prevents issuers from processing chargebacks directly through Mastercom until you’ve had a chance to resolve.
End result: faster dispute resolution and lower costs for merchants. That, in turn, can translate to lower prices for consumers.
Mastercom: The Way Forward
There’s a lot to love about Mastercard Mastercom. It helps streamline the chargeback workflow, facilitate communications between stakeholders, and offers more opportunities to preempt invalid disputes. To get started, you simply need to contact your acquirer.
As powerful a platform is, however, it’s still not enough to stop all Mastercard chargebacks; representments will still be necessary. And you may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of assessing available evidence and building solid cases. That’s why we’re here.
The industry experts at Chargebacks911 offer unparalleled knowledge, experience, and expertise in the field. We can provide everything necessary to provide the best possible chance of a successful outcome. Contact us today to learn more.
FAQs
What is the Mastercom API?
Mastercom API is a real-time "Application Programming Interface" (APII). It enables Mastercard members to interact directly with the Mastercom platform for the entire life-cycle of a dispute.
Is API integration safe?
Yes, assuming it was properly implemented and all security protocols are intact.
How does Mastercard collaboration work?
Mastercard’s Collaboration works like an early warning system for chargebacks. It sends notifications when a cardholder has disputed a charge. This gives the merchant time to review the claim and resolve it directly, typically through a customer refund.
What was the Mastercard dispute resolution initiative?
The Mastercard Dispute Resolution initiative, or MDR, is an updated chargeback process that Mastercard implemented in 2018. MDR shifted Mastercard to a “rules-based” system for chargeback workflow management, making the chargeback process more fair, efficient, and responsive to the demands of contemporary payments.
How much is a Mastercard dispute fee?
Chargeback fees are intended to cover any administrative costs incurred due to the chargeback. Depending on the circumstances, Mastercard chargeback fees can vary anywhere between $5 and $100 per incident. In most cases, these fees are non-refundable and must be paid even if the merchant proves the dispute was invalid.
