Legal
When an order can be cancelled, when it is refunded, and what happens to the money.
Draft. Consumer refund rights vary by jurisdiction and several of them cannot be limited by a policy document. This must be reviewed by a lawyer before Emerald takes real payments.
An order awaiting payment can be cancelled from its order page at any time. Nothing has been charged, the items are released back to the market, and there is nothing to refund.
Unpaid orders also expire on their own. The listings they were holding are released automatically so they do not sit reserved indefinitely.
Contact support and quote the order number. If we have not yet sent the Steam trade offer, the order is cancelled and refunded in full.
If Emerald takes payment and then cannot source the item — a bot is unreachable, or reconciliation finds stock missing — the order is refunded in full to your Emerald balance automatically. You do not have to ask.
This is deliberate. Emerald holding a buyer’s money for something it cannot supply is the failure mode that matters most on a marketplace, so it resolves without requiring anyone to notice.
If you decline the trade offer, or let it expire, the order is marked failed. Contact support and we will either send a fresh offer or refund it — whichever you prefer.
Once an item has been verified as transferred into your Steam inventory, the sale is final. Emerald cannot reverse a completed Steam trade, and the item is yours — you can list it again on Emerald at any time.
The exception is a delivery dispute: if an order says completed but the item is not in your inventory, contact support. The trade history attached to the order records exactly what moved and when.
Refunds are credited to your Emerald balance, which you can spend on the market or withdraw. Where a refund must go back to the original payment method instead, contact support and we will arrange it with the payment provider.
Every refund appears in your transaction history with the order it relates to and the balance after it was applied.
If you believe a charge is wrong, contact support@emerald.example first — it is nearly always faster than a chargeback. Opening a chargeback for an item that was delivered is fraud, and the account will be suspended pending the outcome.