When the Agent Is Wrong: Dispute Resolution in Agentic Commerce

Agents will make mistakes. An agent will misinterpret an instruction, select the wrong variant, fail to apply a discount code, or purchase an item the human had already decided against. The question is not whether disputes will occur in agentic commerce — they will — but whether the resolution process preserves the customer relationship or destroys it. UCP’s dispute architecture is designed for the former.

Categories of Agent Commerce Disputes

Agent commerce disputes fall into distinct categories with different resolution paths. Unauthorized transaction disputes occur when the human claims the agent acted outside its authorization — the most serious category, requiring full refund and authorization audit. Wrong item disputes occur when the agent selected a different product than the human intended — typically resolved through standard return and exchange flows. Price disputes occur when the agent paid a price that differed from what was displayed at the time of purchase decision — UCP’s price lock mechanism addresses this before the transaction completes. Service disputes occur when the purchased service was not delivered as specified.

UCP’s Pre-Transaction Dispute Prevention

The best dispute is the one that does not happen. UCP builds pre-transaction verification into the checkout flow: the agent presents a summary of what is about to be purchased — product, variant, price, quantity, estimated delivery — and the authorization scope confirms this transaction is within policy before any charge occurs. This confirmation step catches the majority of would-be disputes before money changes hands.

The Audit Trail in Dispute Resolution

When a dispute does occur, UCP’s cryptographically signed transaction log is the authoritative record. The log shows exactly what the agent was authorized to do, what it requested, what the merchant confirmed, and what was charged. This eliminates the he-said-she-said dynamic that makes payment disputes expensive and relationship-damaging. Both parties have access to the same signed record.

Merchant-Side Dispute Obligations

UCP-certified merchants are required to process dispute claims within defined windows: 5 business days for acknowledgment, 15 business days for resolution. Merchants who fail to meet these windows are flagged in the UCP certification database, which affects their visibility in agent discovery. This creates a merchant incentive structure that rewards responsive dispute handling.

Frequently Asked Questions

If an agent makes an unauthorized purchase, who is liable — the AI company or the consumer?

Under UCP’s authorization framework, the consumer is responsible for purchases within their authorized scope and the AI company is responsible for transactions that exceed or violate that scope. The signed authorization record is the basis for this determination. This is why authorization scoping is so critical to deploy correctly.

Frequently Asked Questions