Not upheld: chargeback handling delays and refund timing complaint against AMERICAN EXPRESS SERVICES EUROPE LIMITED

Decision detail

Summary

Mr B, on behalf of his company G, complained that Amex unreasonably delayed refunding a disputed payment of £10,418.18 made in April 2023, with the refund not occurring until April 2025 (18 months later). The complaint was complicated by a prior FOS decision in March 2025 that concluded the chargeback would not have been successful even if Amex had handled it correctly. Although Amex subsequently refunded the payment as a commercial exception in April 2025, Mr B sought additional compensation for loss of access to the funds. The ombudsman declined to uphold the complaint, finding that since Amex was not required to refund the payment based on the earlier decision, its voluntary refund did not create an obligation to pay additional compensation.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman distinguished between two separate complaints: the first concerning the handling of the chargeback itself (already decided in March 2025), and the second concerning compensation for the delay in refunding after Amex's voluntary decision to refund. The ombudsman concluded that since the earlier final decision established Amex was not required to refund the payment (as the chargeback would not have succeeded), Amex's subsequent voluntary refund as a commercial exception did not create an obligation to pay additional compensation for loss of access to funds. The ombudsman declined to revisit the earlier decision on the chargeback handling.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website