Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE 3.0)

Compelling Evidence 3.0 gives merchants a defined evidence route for eligible Visa reason-code 10.4 card-absent fraud disputes, including some first-party misuse claims. A plausible prior relationship alone does not establish eligibility.

The Prior-Relationship Standard

Under CE 3.0, a merchant must produce evidence linking the disputed transaction to a pattern of prior legitimate use. The qualifying criteria are specific:

Transaction count: At least two qualifying prior transactions under Visa's timing and transaction conditions.

Matching data: Visa's rule specifies a device identifier/fingerprint or IP address together with another permitted matching element. Device ID and device fingerprint cannot be counted as two separate elements under the October 2026 rule. Check the applicable version and submission format.

Clean history: The issuer must not have reported the qualifying prior transactions as fraud. This is narrower than a blanket claim that no type of dispute ever occurred.

Timing: Ordinarily, each prior transaction must have been processed more than 120 calendar days before the dispute is submitted, and no more than 365 calendar days before the dispute's processing date. Visa exempts original credit transactions from the 120-day minimum; confirm case-specific applicability and the current rule version.

Qualification, submission and the eventual dispute outcome are separate steps. A matching-data check is not an automatic ruling in the merchant's favour.

What CE 3.0 Changed

CE 3.0 adds specified prior-transaction data to the evidence available in an eligible case. The current scheme rule and acquirer workflow govern how it is assessed.

Operator Implementation Requirements

CE 3.0 is only effective if the merchant captures and retains device-level transaction data. Operators must ensure:

• Device fingerprinting is active on checkout and stored against each transaction record.
• IP addresses are captured at transaction time and retained.
• The data is linked to both the card number and account login credential across the transaction history.
• The chargeback management workflow can surface CE 3.0-eligible prior transactions before the deadline in the PSP or acquirer case notice.

Without the required historical data, a merchant may be unable to substantiate a CE 3.0 response even where a first-party fraud pattern appears plausible.

Change effective 24 October 2026. Visa's Core Rules (18 April 2026 edition) expand CE 3.0 so the two qualifying prior transactions need not all be with the disputing merchant — the rule text reads "used at one or more Merchants in 2 previous Transactions". The data elements required are unchanged; the pool of transactions that can supply them is wider.

Source: Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules (18 April 2026 edition), dispute condition 10.4. Confirm case-specific requirements with the acquirer.