When a payment is verified with 3-D Secure, the card issuer has confirmed the cardholder before the payment went for approval. Because the issuer made that call, responsibility for a fraud chargeback on that payment moves from you to the issuer. That is the commercial reason 3-D Secure exists, and the card brands call it liability shift.
This article is about what that covers and what it does not. For what your customers experience, read 3-D Secure: what it is and what your customers see.
What liability shift covers
| Kind of dispute | Who carries it on a verified payment |
|---|---|
| The cardholder says they did not make or authorize the payment | The card issuer |
| The item never arrived, or was not as described | You |
| Duplicate charge, cancelled subscription, or another service dispute | You |
| A fraud dispute on a payment where verification did not succeed | You |
| A fraud dispute on a payment taken without 3-D Secure | You |
In one line: liability shift is about the cardholder denying the payment, not about anything that happened afterwards with the goods or the service.
What it does not do
It does not decide the outcome of any one dispute. Liability shift changes who carries fraud chargeback responsibility under the card brand rules. Every dispute is still handled case by case by the card brands and the banks involved, and neither Clover nor WeeConnectPay decides how one ends.
It does not stop chargebacks from arriving. A cardholder can still open a dispute on a verified payment. Verification changes where the responsibility sits, not whether someone can complain.
It does not guarantee the payment is approved. Verification and approval are separate steps. A verified payment can still be declined by the bank for an ordinary reason such as insufficient funds.
It does not replace your other protections. Card security code checks, postal code checks, and your own order review keep doing their own work.
Reading the result on a payment
On your WeeConnectPay dashboard, open Transactions. A payment that went through 3-D Secure carries a small shield marker, and pointing at the shield opens a 3D Secure panel. Two lines in it matter here:
- Validation is what happened during verification, for example Authenticated, Authentication attempted, Authentication failed, or Card not enrolled.
- Liability is the commercial outcome, and reads either Liability shifted to issuer or No liability shift.
Liability shifted to issuer is the line to look for when a dispute lands on a payment. Keep the order number and the date to hand.
If a chargeback arrives on a verified payment
Chargebacks themselves are handled through Clover, since Clover holds your merchant account and the dispute record. Two things are worth doing on your side first:
- Open the payment on your WeeConnectPay dashboard and note the Liability line for it.
- Email support@weeconnectpay.com with the order number if you want us to confirm what verification result that payment was recorded with. It takes one lookup, and it is worth having before you respond to a fraud dispute on a payment that reads Liability shifted to issuer.