Compelling Evidence 3.0, usually shortened to CE3.0, is a Visa evidence standard that took effect in 2023 for disputing friendly fraud. It lets a merchant defend a dispute filed as fraud by proving a history of prior undisputed transactions with the same cardholder. When at least two earlier payments share matching data points such as device fingerprint, IP address, shipping address or account login, and none of them was disputed, the evidence shifts liability for the new dispute back to the issuer.
Why it matters
Before CE3.0, a chargeback marked as fraud was very hard to win even when the customer had quietly used the product for months, because the older evidence rules leaned on proof of delivery and signatures that digital merchants rarely have. CE3.0 rewrites that in the merchant’s favour for exactly the pattern that defines friendly fraud: a real customer with a real account history who disputes anyway. Meeting the criteria can flip a near certain loss into an issuer liability win at representment, and it rewards merchants who capture and retain clean transaction data. It does not help against genuine first time fraud, where no trusted history exists.