Chargeback and SEPA recall: deadlines you should know

The recall is not an enforceable claim, but a request by your bank to the recipient bank to return the amount. The usual prerequisite is that a credit balance exists and that the recipient agrees or the bank cooperates for other reasons. In practical terms that means: the recall is effective primarily in the first hours and days.

In a chargeback, a card payment is reversed via the acquirer. The prerequisites and deadlines follow from the rulebooks of the card schemes and vary according to the ground – for example non-delivery, unauthorised use or a divergent performance. The deadlines are in some cases short and begin depending on the ground of complaint.

To be distinguished from that are payments you never authorised. Here refund claims against the payment service provider generally exist, and the burden of proving an authorisation lies with the provider. In practice it is regularly disputed whether an approval – for example in a banking app – is to be assessed as an authorisation. This distinction decides the applicable framework and should be examined.