Arbitration policy
Both parties accept these terms at checkout. The arbiter cannot write new rules during a case: it picks one of the rules below, names the facts it relied on and explains why the rule applies. That is what makes a verdict something a human can check afterwards rather than something to take on faith.
Records neither side controls
A weight recorded by the carrier's scale, a delivery scan, a customs entry. These are produced by a third party with no stake in the outcome and carry the most weight.
Photographs
A photograph shows what was in front of the camera. It proves the state of an object, not where that object came from, so it supports a case rather than deciding one.
What the parties say
A statement from the buyer or the merchant is the starting point of a case, not the evidence for it. On its own it never outweighs an independent record.
A dispute can only be opened while the payment is protected. Until that window closes the merchant cannot be paid, and once it closes without a dispute anyone can trigger the payout — no permission from Mercuryo is involved either way. If a dispute is opened and no verdict follows within seven days, anyone can refund the buyer, so the money cannot be left stranded in the contract.
In this prototype the window is counted from the moment of payment and compressed to minutes, so a demo does not take a week. In production it would run from the carrier's delivery scan, which requires the contract to accept a delivery event and an agreement on who is entitled to submit one.
If independent evidence shows the delivered goods are not what the listing described, the buyer is refunded in full. Independent means a measurement or record that neither side controls, such as the carrier's own weighing.
If delivery is confirmed and no objective evidence contradicts the listing, the money is released to the merchant. A buyer's statement on its own does not outweigh a confirmed delivery.
If the item arrived but is damaged, incomplete, or worse than the stated grade, the amount is split to reflect the loss in value while the merchant keeps the rest.
If the carrier has no delivery scan, or the delivery is contradicted by the carrier's own record, the buyer is refunded in full. Losing a parcel is the merchant's risk, not the buyer's.
If the evidence does not support a confident decision, no payout is made. The money stays in escrow and the case goes to a human reviewer.
A verdict is signed automatically only when all of the following hold. Otherwise the case goes to the review queue, the arbitration key is never used, and the money stays in escrow until a person decides.
This is contractual arbitration between a buyer and a merchant, agreed in advance. It is not a court, it does not replace one, and neither party gives up the right to go to one.