Visa Expands Compelling Evidence 3.0 to Cover Non-Disputed Fraud (April 2026)

Visa is expanding its Compelling Evidence 3.0 (CE3.0) program, effective April 18, 2026. The change is narrow but useful for merchants dealing with repeat-customer fraud claims, so it’s worth understanding even if you’re not a Visa compliance specialist.

What CE3.0 already did

CE3.0 was introduced in April 2023 as a tool against first-party fraud and friendly-fraud disputes. If a customer disputed a transaction as fraud (a TC15 chargeback) but had at least two prior undisputed transactions sharing data points with the disputed one — such as device ID, IP address, shipping address, or account ID — the merchant could submit that purchase history as compelling evidence that the transaction was, in fact, authorized.

What’s changing in April 2026

The original rule only applied once a dispute had actually escalated to a TC15 chargeback. It did not help with TC40 fraud reports — reports issuers file when they flag a transaction as fraudulent without ever filing a formal chargeback. Those TC40s still counted against a merchant’s Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) ratio, with no way to contest them.

The April 2026 update extends CE3.0 criteria to these non-disputed TC40 fraud reports. Merchants will be able to apply the same historical-pattern evidence to push back on a TC40 report and, where it qualifies, exclude it from their VAMP calculation.

Who this affects

• Merchants with a meaningful share of returning customers, since the rule requires an established purchase history
• Businesses seeing first-party or friendly fraud rather than genuine third-party card fraud
• It does not help with first-time buyers or with accounts under 120 days old — Visa’s minimum window for the historical pattern requirement
• Merchants using Visa Order Insight are especially well positioned to benefit, since that data feed supports the kind of matching CE3.0 evidence requires

What to do about it

If TC40 fraud reports have been dragging on your dispute or fraud ratios without a corresponding chargeback to fight, this is the mechanism to watch. It won’t eliminate fraud reports, and it won’t help with new-customer fraud. But for a returning-customer base, it closes a gap that previously had no recourse at all. As with any card-network program change, confirm the specifics with your processor or acquirer before relying on it — rules and rollout timing can vary by acquiring bank.

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