CE 3.0 eligibility
What Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 is, the eligibility criteria, and the prior-transaction data points it requires.
Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE 3.0) is a Visa rule that lets merchants fight certain fraud disputes by proving a history of prior, undisputed transactions from the same cardholder. It applies to fraud disputes under Visa reason code 10.4 (card-absent fraud). When a merchant can show that the same customer made earlier purchases that were never disputed, Visa treats the current transaction as more likely legitimate, and the liability can shift back to the issuer. CE 3.0 is one of the most effective tools for recovering "friendly fraud" disputes, where the cardholder did in fact make the purchase.
What CE 3.0 changed
Earlier compelling-evidence rules required merchants to prove the specific disputed transaction was valid, which is hard when a cardholder simply denies a charge they actually made. CE 3.0 takes a different approach: it lets the merchant point to a pattern of prior good transactions tied to the same person. If two or more qualifying prior transactions match, Visa can dismiss the dispute before it becomes a chargeback.
Eligibility criteria
To qualify under CE 3.0, a merchant must identify at least two prior transactions from the same cardholder that meet all of the following conditions.
| Criterion | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Age | The prior transactions occurred between 120 and 365 days before the disputed transaction date. |
| Undisputed | The prior transactions were not themselves disputed, charged back, or refunded for fraud. |
| Same cardholder | The prior transactions belong to the same Visa account as the disputed transaction. |
| Matching data points | The prior transactions share identifying data points with the disputed transaction (see below). |
Required prior-transaction data points
The prior transactions must share identifying data with the disputed one. At least two of the following must match across the prior and disputed transactions, and at least one must be a device or account identifier.
- Customer account or login ID used at the merchant.
- Device fingerprint or device ID.
- IP address.
- Shipping address.
- Email address used for the order.
- Phone number on file.
The more data points that match, and the more closely they tie to the device or account rather than just the order, the stronger the case.
Friendly fraud is the target
CE 3.0 is most effective against friendly fraud, where the cardholder made the purchase but disputes it anyway. By proving the same person transacted before without complaint, the merchant undercuts the claim that the charge was unauthorized.
How it helps fraud disputes
A fraud dispute filed under Visa 10.4 normally turns on whether the merchant can prove the cardholder authorized the charge. Without CE 3.0, that is difficult in a card-absent environment. With CE 3.0, the merchant shifts the question from "was this one transaction valid" to "does this customer have a clean history with us," which is far easier to evidence. When the prior transactions qualify, Visa can resolve the dispute in the merchant's favor and, in many cases, prevent it from escalating to a chargeback at all.
Chargeflow checks each eligible fraud dispute against CE 3.0 criteria, locates qualifying prior transactions in your connected data, and assembles the matching data points into the response. See Dispute automation engine.