Mastercard expands First-Party Trust program across Europe as chargebacks are forecast to hit 324 million in 2028

Mastercard has expanded its First-Party Trust program across Europe to help issuers and merchants sort legitimate purchases from first-party fraud, the kind of dispute where a cardholder challenges a real transaction. For PSPs and merchants, the practical point is simple: fewer unnecessary chargebacks if the evidence flow between merchant and issuer is actually useful.

1. Mastercard says global chargeback volume is forecast to reach 324 million transactions in 2028, up from 261 million in the 2025 forecast. That is the backdrop for the rollout: more commerce, more disputes, and more pressure on both merchants and issuers to tell third-party fraud from first-party fraud.
2. The First-Party Trust program is built around transaction transparency. Mastercard says it uses risk model-driven insights to inform authorization decisions, plus merchant-provided evidence to help issuers review disputed transactions. In other words, the issuer gets more than a raw dispute claim; it gets signals that can point to likely third-party fraud and separate it from a customer who is disputing a legitimate purchase.
3. Merchants can share these enhanced insights in two ways: directly as part of the transaction, or later in the disputes process. The data can include information tied to the purchase, delivery, and authentication of the transaction, where available and appropriate. Mastercard also says the program introduces new rules defining compelling evidence, with merchant chargeback protection for disputes that meet First-Party Trust evidence-sharing requirements.
4. The expansion now covers Europe. Mastercard says European issuers will be able to make more informed dispute decisions by distinguishing third-party fraud from first-party fraud more accurately. Michele Centemero, Executive Vice President, Services Europe, at Mastercard, said the goal is to reduce unnecessary disputes while strengthening confidence across the payments ecosystem.
5. First-Party Trust is not new globally: Mastercard launched the program in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and across the Asia Pacific region in 2024. Europe is the next region to get the program, which matters for high-risk merchants because dispute handling is often where margins quietly disappear.