How they work
Chargebacks are netted from what Vendor Central remits to you. Typical triggers include shipment timing, ASN accuracy, carton and pallet labeling, and purchase order confirmation rules. Because the deduction arrives inside the remittance, the finance system often books the net amount and the explanation stays in an operations dashboard.
What they cost
Carbon6 puts typical leakage at 1 to 5 percent of revenue. Pattern, cited in Modern Retail, puts the broader deduction stack at 5 to 10 percent. On a €100M vendor relationship that is €1M to €10M a year. Carbon6 also estimates that 35 to 70 percent of chargebacks are disputable, yet most brands recover only a fraction because the dispute process is painful.
Why nobody owns the number
Compliance cost sits in operations as leakage, while sales owns revenue and finance owns the consolidated view. Nobody holds "chargeback exposure" as a top KPI. Rules also move: Amazon reduced the unconfirmed purchase order chargeback from 10 percent to 5 percent of product cost in July 2025, while other compliance fees changed in other directions. Track the total, not the headline rule.