Not upheld: refund claim handling under section 75 of Consumer Credit Act 1974 and Mastercard chargeback dispute complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as Tesco Bank

Decision detail

Summary

Mr W purchased airline tickets for himself and his wife using his TB credit card for £973. His wife was refused boarding due to alleged issues with her travel documents (BRP card, eVisa, and share code). Neither passenger boarded. When the airline declined a refund, Mr W claimed under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and pursued a Mastercard chargeback. TB declined both, though paid £75 for a service failure. The ombudsman found no valid section 75 claim existed for Mrs W's ticket as she had a separate airline contract, and the chargeback lacked reasonable prospect of success given the complexity of visa requirements and lack of persuasive evidence that Mrs W was incorrectly denied boarding.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found no valid debtor-credit-supplier agreement for Mrs W's ticket because Mrs W had a separate contract with the airline and the claim concerned her denial of boarding, not Mr W's. Mr W was not denied boarding, so the airline did not breach its contract with him. For the chargeback, the ombudsman concluded that without persuasive evidence that Mrs W was incorrectly denied boarding, and given the complexity of visa requirements during transitional arrangements, TB reasonably decided not to progress the dispute further as it lacked reasonable prospect of success.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website