Payment Services Directive (PSD2)

(76) The SEPA project aims to further develop common Union-wide payment services to replace current national services with regard to payments denominated in euro. With a view to ensuring complete migration to Union-wide credit transfers and direct debits, Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 establishes technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro. With reference to direct debits, that Regulation envisages that the payer give consent both to the payee and to the payer’s payment service provider (directly or indirectly via the payee), and that mandates, together with later modifications or cancellation, are stored by the payee or by a third party on behalf of the payee. The current and, so far, only pan-European direct debit scheme for consumer payments in euro developed by the European Payments Council is based on the principle that the mandate to execute a direct debit is given by the payer to the payee and, together with later modifications or cancellation, is stored by the payee. The mandate can also be stored by a third party on behalf of the payee. In order to ensure broad public support for SEPA and to ensure a high level of consumer protection within SEPA, the existing pan-European direct debit scheme provides for an unconditional right to a refund for authorised payments. Reflecting that reality, this Directive aims to establish an unconditional right to a refund as a general requirement for all euro-denominated direct debit transactions in the Union. However, in parallel with SEPA, legacy non-euro direct debit schemes continue to exist in Member States whose currency is not the euro. Those schemes are proving to be efficient and ensure the same high level of protection to the payer by other safeguards, not always based on an unconditional right to a refund. In that case the payer should be protected by the general rule for a refund when the executed payment transaction exceeds the amount which could reasonably have been expected. In addition, it should be possible for Member States to lay down rules concerning the right to a refund that are more favourable to the payer. There is a genuine demand for specific euro-denominated direct debit products within SEPA, as illustrated by the continued existence of certain legacy payment services in euro in some Member States. It would be proportionate to permit the payer and the payer’s payment service provider to agree in a framework contract that the payer has no right to a refund in situations where the payer is protected either because the payer has given consent to execute a transaction directly to its payment service provider, including when the payment service provider acts on behalf of the payee, or because, where applicable, information on the future payment transaction was provided or made available in an agreed manner to the payer at least 4 weeks before the due date by the payment service provider or by the payee. In any event, the payer should always be protected by the general refund rule in the case of unauthorised or incorrectly executed payment transactions.