Your platform is the merchant of record on the shape a marketplace normally uses. A refund or a lost dispute reverses the charge against your platform’s balance, not the seller’s.
This page is written for the reader who is here because something already went wrong.
Where the money comes from
The reversal draws on your platform’s available_balance first. If that does not cover it, the draw continues into pending_balance.
A lost dispute can drive the balance negative, deliberately. Anything still uncovered after both is debited from available_balance anyway, taking it negative: that negative balance is the debt, and it heals as your platform’s own future settlement credits land. A refund cannot do this; an unfundable refund is refused instead. See Disputes for what a negative balance blocks in the meantime.
The seller keeps the share it already received. The payout transfer already sent to the seller is not reversed, so your platform bears the full amount, including what the seller was paid.
Why this differs from the account collecting
Liability follows entirely from who was the merchant of record:
If the account collected instead, the reversal would be its own, and there would be nothing for you to recover. Here you collected, so you carry it, and recovering the seller’s share back is a transfer you send yourself, off Bachs, that only succeeds while the seller still holds it. See Disputes for that recovery path in detail.
What to do about it
Watch your own balance, not the seller’s. The debt is your platform’s, and it heals only from your own future settlement credits. See Balances.
Do not transfer a seller’s share the moment a charge settles, if you might need it back. A share already transferred and withdrawn cannot be recovered with a transfer, which is refused before it takes the seller’s balance below zero. Delaying the transfer gives you a window to reverse it instead. See Split payments for the same timing logic applied generally.
Watch for new disputes rather than waiting on one. Your platform is notified by email when a dispute is raised, and again on a reminder cadence while it still needs a response, since your platform owns the charge. Poll List Disputes rather than relying on email alone.
