Excessive Chargeback Program

Mastercard has a global chargeback monitoring program called the Excessive Chargeback Program (ECP) that monitors chargebacks, defines non-compliance thresholds, identifies when merchant accounts have excessive chargeback activity, and requires merchants to reduce chargebacks to remain compliant with Mastercard's standards.

Mastercard identifies merchants by merchant account id and will review all merchant accounts monthly for accounts exceeding the thresholds.

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Mastercard also has a global fraud monitoring program called the Excessive Fraud Merchant Program (EFM). Any merchant identified as non-compliant for both Excessive Fraud Merchant Program and the Excessive Chargeback Program in the same month will only be subject to the applicable Excessive Fraud Merchant Program assessments.

For general information about card brand monitoring programs and important terms, visit the Card Brand Monitoring Program's Overview article.

Excessive Chargeback Program details

The Excessive Chargeback Program monitors your merchant account. It uses your chargeback count and ratio to determine which threshold your account meets. Based on the threshold you will be assessed different levels of fines.

The formula the Excessive Chargeback Program uses to calculate your Mastercard chargeback ratio is the count of chargebacks received in a given month divided by the count of sales processed in the prior month (example: June chargebacks / May sales).

Thresholds

If your merchant account meets or exceeds either of the non-compliance thresholds by chargeback count and chargeback ratio, you could be flagged with one of the following: Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) or High Excessive Chargeback Merchant (HECM).

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Effective April 2020, the Excessive Chargeback Program no longer identifies merchants at the Chargeback Monitored Merchant (CMM) threshold of 100 chargebacks and a 1.0% ratio.

Effective October 2019 - Both chargeback count and chargeback ratio must be met or exceeded in order to be flagged in one of these thresholds:

Fines

Effective April 2020 Globally, effective September 2020 for Canada only - The fine assessments/penalties for this program are:

* Account is also eligible for an Issuer Recovery Assessment, which is an additional fine at USD/EUR 5 per chargeback over 300 chargebacks.

Extensions

Mastercard offers an extension to be filed, which will place a hold on fine assessments for 6 months if granted. During the extension timeframe, you can still be identified in the Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) or/ High Excessive Chargeback Merchants (HECM) level. Fine assessments will accrue with each identification. However, these fines will not be assessed during the extension. If you are below ECM thresholds at the end of the extension, no fines will be assessed. Regardless, if you flag over the thresholds at the end of the extension, all accrued fines will be assessed at that time.

Remediation plan

If you have been identified in the Excessive Chargeback Program, a remediation plan may be requested by Mastercard. A remediation plan aims to show Mastercard what actions you are taking to remedy the situation and regain compliance. Information communicated is also reviewed and considered when the card brand issues fine assessments.

The main details you should provide for your remediation plan include, but are not limited to:

• Business description
• Events leading to the increased chargebacks
• Actions taken to reduce chargebacks, including implementation dates
• Description of all fraud tools currently enabled

How to exit the program

To exit the Excessive Chargeback Program, your merchant account must be below the Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM) thresholds for 3 consecutive months.

If you have any questions regarding these programs, check out our FAQ or Contact us.