Mastercard’s new fraud and dispute monitoring framework will not take effect until April 1, 2027, but cruise lines should not wait until then to prepare, according to Tim Tynan, chief executive officer of Chargeback Gurus.
Mastercard is replacing its existing merchant monitoring programs with the Global Merchant Audit Program, known as GMAP.
The new framework folds three existing categories: Excessive Fraud Merchant, Excessive Chargeback Merchant and High Excessive Chargeback Merchant, into GMAP, while adding four new categories that measure combined fraud and dispute activity at the merchant and acquirer level.
The most consequential change for cruise lines is a phased reduction of the Excessive Chargeback Merchant ratio threshold.
The current range of 1.5 to 2.99 percent holds steady through 2028, then drops in stages to 1.3 percent in 2029, 1.1 percent in 2030 and 0.9 percent by 2031.
Cruise bookings are typically made many months in advance, which means transactions accepted today could still generate a dispute or fraud report well after GMAP takes hold, Tynan said.
“Cruise operators should pay attention now because the transactions that create problems in 2027 may already be happening,” Tynan said.
“Cruises are often booked many months in advance, so a payment accepted today could become a fraud report or dispute after GMAP takes effect.”
Connecting booking, payment, refund and fraud data across multiple systems takes time, he added, and operators who wait until the rules take effect risk running out of runway to fix recurring problems.
GMAP introduces a High Dispute Merchant category that applies once a merchant’s combined fraud reports and non-fraud chargebacks reach 5 percent of the previous month’s sales, a threshold Tynan described as high for most cruise operators under normal conditions.
“That’s a high threshold for most cruise operators, but there’s some potential for exposure after a concentrated event, a canceled sailing, hurricane, mechanical problem or sudden itinerary change, that causes disputes to arrive together,” Tynan explained.
The bigger long-term risk, he said, is the staged tightening of the Excessive Chargeback Merchant threshold beginning in 2027.
“With the current 1.5 percent ratio limit eventually decreasing to 0.9 percent, some operators who’ve never had trouble with compliance before may find themselves on the wrong side of the line if they’re not prepared,” Tynan noted.
Asked what cruise operators should prioritize before the rules take hold, Tynan pointed to one answer above all others, which is a better visibility into chargeback data.
“If I had to pick one priority, it would be getting better visibility into chargeback data,” Tynan said.
“Cruise operators should be tracking chargeback ratios for each card network on each MID and should have early warning systems in place for when those ratios approach specific thresholds.”
Chargeback Gurus has built tracking and notification systems for chargeback and fraud ratios, along with Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program ratio, to help merchants avoid what Tynan called unpleasant surprises.
The company has also developed analytics tools designed to surface insights from chargeback data.
“Greater visibility into chargeback data can also be used to reduce disputes by revealing hidden patterns and identifying operational causes,” Tynan advised.
“The goal is to spend the next 12 months finding and fixing the issues that drive disputes rather than waiting until consequences are looming.”
