The dispute policy

A dispute is opened by the buyer of that purchase, and only while the money is still in escrow. No one else can open one: not the seller, not Bernuvia, not a third party on your behalf. The step by step is in Opening a dispute.

• Who: only the buyer of that order. The seller cannot open a dispute.
• When: while the payment is still in escrow and before the automatic release (24 hours from payment). After that point the contract has already paid the seller and there is nothing left to freeze.
• Withdrawing it: only the buyer, who is the one who opened it; the order goes back on track with whatever release time it had left.

A case is decided on what can be checked, not on who insists the most. Everything both parties contribute lives in the case thread, in the Dispute center.

• The written reason given when opening the dispute: what went wrong and what you expected to receive.
• Attached files: up to 5 JPEG, PNG or PDF files of 10 MB each — screenshots of the error, of the file received or of what is missing.
• The messages exchanged with the other party and everything written afterwards in the thread.
• The template listing as it was published: what the «what's included» promised is the yardstick.
• The order history: payment, delivery, downloads and file versions, with their dates.

1. 1The resolution committee reads both sides, the evidence and the order history.
2. 2It decides a concrete split, in writing: how much goes back to the buyer and how much to the seller, with the reason on record.
3. 3Below 500 USDC one administrator is enough. From 500 USDC up, two different administrators must approve exactly the same split; two approvals from the same person do not count.
4. 4Rectifying a split already approved requires the same number of new approvals on the new figure: no one undoes a decision on their own.

There are two clocks on the chain and two commitments of ours inside them. The chain's clocks cannot be paused or extended: they are written into the contract.

• Dispute window: 24 hours from payment. It is the only moment when a dispute can be opened.
• Resolution period: 30 days counted from the moment that dispute was opened. It is a contract deadline, not an estimate.
• Committee commitment: to decide in under 20 days from the opening, so that no case reaches the limit through neglect.
• Safe window: Bernuvia neither prepares nor executes a resolution in the last 48 hours before expiry, so as not to race the expiry closure.

While the case is open the money does not move from the escrow contract. The only possible destinations are the buyer, the seller and the fee to the treasury: the contract admits no other.

• The fee is calculated only on the part the seller receives, at the fee set when the payment was made. That is how it is written in the contract.
• A full refund carries no fee: if everything goes back to the buyer, the seller's part is zero and so is the fee.
• In a split, the buyer receives their part in full and the seller theirs minus the fee.

The whole case happens in one place: the dispute thread in the Dispute center. That is where you write, contribute and read the resolution.

• The thread holds the reason, the evidence from both sides and the final message with the split decided.
• The bell notifies every movement of the case inside the platform.
• The resolution email and the closing of the case go out when the chain confirms the resolution, not when it is approved: until the transaction is confirmed, nothing is announced as done.

• It does not move the money anywhere else. The contract only allows buyer, seller and fee; neither Bernuvia nor anyone else can divert it.
• It does not execute in the final window. In the last 48 hours before expiry we neither prepare nor execute resolutions.
• It does not decide without evidence. If one side provides none, the case is decided on what is in the file, never out of sympathy or account seniority.
• It does not pause or extend the deadlines. Neither the dispute window nor the 30 days can be moved: they are contract constants.