Digistore24's Lucas Coro on Why Chargebacks Are Now a Board-Level Problem

The launch pairs Digistore24’s backend with Stripe Link to let shoppers authenticate directly through their banks, eliminating the traditional card‑present dispute pathway. By moving payments to an account‑to‑account model, Digistore24 hopes to sidestep the escalating chargeback tide—261 million disputes in 2025, projected to hit 359 million by 2029 and cost merchants an average $128 each (including $82 internal labor and $46 third‑party fees). Lucas Coro, Digistore24’s U.S. Sales Director, says the shift is less about boosting sales volume and more about preserving merchant IDs, which can be revoked if a vendor’s dispute ratio breaches Visa’s new “excessive” threshold of 1.5 % (down from 2.2 %) and incurs $8 per excess dispute as of April 1 2026.

This move reflects a broader industry pivot away from card‑not‑present (CNP) transactions, which now represent 63 % of merchant volume and carry the bulk of fraud risk. As card networks tighten tolerance and chargeback fees rise, platforms that can offer alternative settlement rails—such as bank‑to‑bank transfers, ACH, or real‑time payments—are gaining traction. Digistore24’s strategy mirrors efforts by rivals like Paddle and FastSpring to embed risk‑mitigation into the checkout flow, but its reliance on Stripe Link gives it a ready‑made authentication layer that many smaller SaaS vendors lack.

Looking ahead, merchants that adopt Instant Bank Payments must still monitor dispute ratios because bank‑originated payments are not immune to first‑party fraud; they simply shift the liability structure. Companies that fail to explain chargeback spikes to their boards risk losing processing privileges, especially under Visa’s tighter rules. Watch for early adoption metrics from Digistore24’s U.S. base, potential pushback from card‑network partners, and whether other payment aggregators replicate the bank‑auth model to stay competitive.