Chargebacks happen when a cardholder disputes a charge with their financial institution (typically a bank or credit card company), which will investigate if the cardholder (e.g., attendee) should be charged or if they deserve a refund. The bank’s first step is to request additional information from the merchant. When you use Eventbrite Payment Processing, Eventbrite is the merchant, which means we manage chargebacks on your behalf. Once the bank reviews documentation from both the cardholder and the merchant (a process that can take up to 120 days), it decides whether to refund the charge. This decision is final — Eventbrite cannot reverse or appeal it once the bank has issued its ruling. You can reduce the risk of chargebacks by setting a clear refund policy and responding quickly to refund requests.
In this article
- How do chargebacks happen?
- What happens when a cardholder files a chargeback for one of my events?
- How can I reduce the risk of receiving chargebacks?
How do chargebacks happen?
To start a chargeback, cardholders dispute a charge with their bank or credit card company. Cardholders can dispute a charge for many different reasons, but these are the most common ones:
- They didn’t get the advertised services.
- They were told that they would get a refund (but didn’t receive one).
- They don't recognize the charge.
Important: Chargebacks can be filed even if an event has a “No Refund” policy, and chargebacks are especially likely to be filed if the event is canceled without a refund or credit.
What happens when a cardholder files a chargeback for one of my events?
As the Merchant of Record, Eventbrite manages all chargebacks on your behalf. While no payment processor can guarantee that chargebacks won't happen or that chargebacks won’t result in loss, Eventbrite wins chargebacks at rates above industry standards and has a dedicated team of chargeback experts who manage chargebacks to help you save time and reduce potential loss. When determining how to manage a chargeback, we may take many factors into account, including but not limited to:
- Your event date
- The chargeback reason
- Our likelihood of winning the chargeback
- Whether the order should be refunded in accordance with your refund policy or Eventbrite’s Organizer Refund Policy Requirements
In some cases, Eventbrite may reach out to you to request additional information that will help us represent the chargeback on your behalf. If you receive this request, reply as soon as possible with anything that supports the transaction, such as:
- Proof that the event and advertised services were delivered.
- The attendee's check-in or attendance status.
- Your published refund policy.
- Any communication with the attendee, including refund requests.
Our success in fighting chargebacks increases as event creators follow best practices and respond promptly to these requests. We'll use the information you provide, along with information we gather from your event details (such as attendance records), to fight the chargeback.
A no-refund policy, attendance records, or the absence of complaints from other attendees can support your case, but none of these guarantees the bank will rule in your favor — the decision is made solely by the cardholder's bank.
Once the bank reviews documentation from both the cardholder and the merchant (a process that can take up to 120 days), it decides whether to refund the charge. If the bank decides in favor of the merchant, there’s no need for additional action, and the order is not refunded. If the bank decides in favor of the cardholder, the bank will issue a refund, and a charge will be added to your account for the full order amount, minus the Eventbrite service fee and payment processing fee.
When the bank decides to refund the charge, Eventbrite sends an email to the email address on your account. Here are your next steps:
- If the event hasn't happened yet, make sure that you are scanning tickets or checking the attendees in by ID. Refunded tickets aren’t valid for your event. If the attendee still wants to use their tickets, direct them to buy new tickets. There is no way to reverse a refund.
- If the event already happened, you’ll see a charge in charges and credits in your Finance workspace. The charge will apply only to the net sales of the order. Eventbrite waives all service and processing fees and covers any bank fees.
The charge will apply to your next payout. If there are no payouts for any of your events by the end of the month, the charge will be invoiced to your account. See more information on viewing and paying invoices.
How can I reduce the risk of receiving chargebacks?
While you can’t fully prevent chargebacks, you can reduce the risk of receiving them by taking these steps:
—Set clear expectations
It’s important that attendees know what to expect from your event. Be sure to:
- Include relevant and accurate details in your event listing.
- Set a clear refund policy.
- If the details of the event change, email your attendees as soon as possible to let them know about the changes and any options you’re offering as a result of the changes.
- Issue any necessary refunds through Eventbrite directly so we have record of the refund and can provide this evidence when we represent any associated chargebacks.
—Respond to refund requests as soon as possible
If attendees request a refund and don’t hear back or are unsatisfied with your response, they are more likely to file a chargeback. To help prevent this:
- Respond to all refund requests promptly (we recommend within 2 business days). The longer you wait to respond to a refund request, the higher the chance a chargeback will occur.
- If you receive a refund request that's outside of your listed refund policy and decide to decline the refund request, consider offering an alternative solution to address the attendee’s concerns. For example:
- A discount or credit to a future event
- Transfer the attendee to an event that they can attend
If you offer an alternative, make sure to maintain written documentation of the offer, especially if it was specifically agreed to by the attendee. If relevant, we may request this documentation so we can help fight any chargebacks that might follow.
Important: Regardless of your policy, and even with a "No refunds" policy, Eventbrite expects you to refund attendees in certain cases, like event cancellations. For more information, see Section 4.3(g) of Eventbrite's Merchant Agreement and Eventbrite's refund policy requirements.
—Use an email address that you regularly check
Important notifications, including refund requests from your attendees and requests from our Chargeback Operations Team, are sent to the main email address on your Eventbrite account. Be sure that your Eventbrite account email is one you check on a regular basis so you don’t miss any of these important notifications. You can find instructions on how to update your account email address here.