27 Amendments of Sari ESSAYAH related to 2013/0265(COD)
Amendment 39 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) This Regulation follows a gradual approach. As a first stepIn order to facilitate the smooth functioning of an internal market for card, internet and mobile payments, to the benefit of consumers and retailers, it is necessary to take measures to facilitate cross-border issuing and acquiring of payment card transactions. Allowing merchants to choose an acquirer outside their own Member State (‘cross border acquiring’) and imposing athe same maximum level of cross border interchange fees for both domestically and cross border acquired transactions should provide the necessary legal clarity. In addition, licences for issuing or acquiring of payment instruments should be valid without geographic restrictions within the Union. These measures would facilitate the smooth functioning of an internal market for card, internet and mobile payments, to the benefit of consumers and retailers.
Amendment 40 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) As a consequence of unilateral undertakings and commitments accepted in the framework of competition proceedings, many cross-border card payment transactions in the Union are already carried out respecting the maximum interchanges fees applicable to the first phase of this Regulation. Therefore, the provisions relating to those transactions should ent. They should be further developed by new provisions in order into force quickly, creatinge opportunities for retailers to useek cheaper acquiring services cross-border, and incentivising domestic b. A transition period is necessary to provide payment services providers and schemes with time to adapt to the new requirements. Therefore, after a six months period following the entry into force of this Regulation and in order to provide for a completion of ank ing communities or schemes to lower their acquiring feeternal market for card-based payments, the caps on interchange fees for consumer card transactions should be extended to cover all cross-border and domestic payments.
Amendment 42 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 17
Recital 17
Amendment 52 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) In order to facilitate cross border acquiring all (cross-border and domestic) ‘consumer’ debit card transactions and card based payment transaction should have a maximum interchange fee of 0,20%the lower amount of 7 eurocents or 0.1% of the transaction value and all (cross-border and domestic) consumer credit card transactions and card based payment transactions based on those should have a maximum interchange fee of 0.30%the lower amount of 14 eurocents or 0.15% of the transaction value.
Amendment 61 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) Those caps are based on the so-called ‘Merchant Indifference Test’ developed in economic literature, which identifies the fee level a merchant would be willing to pay if he were to compare the cost of the customer's use of a payment card with those of non-card (cash) payments (taking into account the fee for service paid to acquiring banks, i.e. the merchant service charge coming on top of the interchange fee). It therebyintroduced to stimulates the use of efficient payment instruments through a promotion of those cards that provide higher transactional benefits, while at the same time preventing disproportionate merchant fees, which would impose hidden costs on other consumers. Excessive merchant fees might otherwise arise due to the collective interchange fee arrangements, as merchants are reluctant to turn down costly payment instruments for fear of losing business. Experience has shown that those levels are proportionate, as they do not call into question the operation of international card schemes and payment service providers. They also provide benefits for retailers and consumers and provide legal certainty.
Amendment 63 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19 a (new)
Recital 19 a (new)
(19a) In line with the basic principles of the single market, acquirers should be able to provide their services to merchants throughout the Union with the MIFs they apply in their home market, but they should not apply higher ones cross- border.
Amendment 64 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) This Regulation should cover all transactions where the payer's payment service provider andor the payee's payment service provider areis established in the Union.
Amendment 66 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 22
Recital 22
(22) Payment card transactions are generally carried out on the basis of two main business models, so-called three party payment card schemes (cardholder – acquiring and issuing scheme - merchant) and four party payment card schemes (card holder- issuing bank- acquiring bank- merchant). Many four payment card party schemes are using an explicit interchange fee, mostly multilateral. Interchange fees (fees paid by acquiring banks to incentivise card issuing and card use) are implicit in three party payment card schemes. To acknowledge the existence of implicit interchange fees and contribute to the creation of a level playing field, three party payment card schemes using payment service providers as issuers or acquirers should be considered as four party payment card schemes and should follow the same rules, whilst transparency and other measures related to business rules should apply to all providers. Three party schemes should accept transactions made using their cards from any acquirer based on general card transaction standards and acquiring rules comparable to the merchant rules for the specific three party schemes and with interchange caps in accordance with this Regulation.
Amendment 69 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 23
Recital 23
(23) It is important to ensure that the provisions concerning the interchange fees to be paid or received by payment service providers are not circumvented by alternative flows of fees to issuing payment services providers. To avoid this, the ‘net compensation’ of fees paid and received by the issuing payment service provider including possible authorisation charges from a payment card scheme should be considered as the interchange fee. When calculating the interchange fee, for the purpose of checking whether circumvention is taking place the total amount of payments or incentives received by an issuing payment services provider from a payment card scheme with respect to the regulated transactions less the fees paid by the issuing payment services provider to the scheme should be taken into account. Payments, incentives and fees considered could be direct (i.e. volume- based or transaction-specific) or indirect (including marketing incentives, bonuses, rebates for meeting certain transaction volumes).
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) A separation of scheme and infrastructure should allow all processors to compete for customers of the schemes. As the cost of processing is a significant part of the total cost of card acceptance, it is important for this part of the value chain to be opened to effective competition. On the basis of the separation of scheme and infrastructure, card schemes and processing entities should be independent in terms of legal form, organisation and decision making process. They should not discriminate, for instance by providing each other with preferential treatment or privileged information which is not available to their competitors on their respective market segment, imposing excessive information requirements on their competitor in their respective market segment, cross-subsidizing their respective activities or having shared governance arrangements. Such discriminatory practises contribute to market fragmentation, negatively impact market entry by new players and prevent pan- Union players from emerging, hence hindering the completion of the internal market in cards, internet and mobile payments, to the detriment of retailers, companies and consumers. In addition to typical four party scheme transactions, processing entities should also be able to process three party scheme transactions so that merchants and acquirers could accept all kinds of cards.
Amendment 73 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 28
Recital 28
(28) In accordance with Article 55of the proposal COM (2013)547 the payee can steer the payer towards the use of a specific payment instrument. However, no extra charges should be requested by the payee for the use of debit card payment instruments of which interchange fees are regulated within the scope of this Regulation, as in such situations the advantages of surcharging become limited while creating complexity in the marketbut rebates are allowed.
Amendment 90 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1
Article 1 – paragraph 1
1. This Regulation lays down uniform technical and business requirements for payment card transactions carried out within the Union, where both the payer's payment service provider andor the payee's payment service provider are established therein.
Amendment 93 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 3 – point a
Article 1 – paragraph 3 – point a
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 3 – point c
Article 1 – paragraph 3 – point c
Amendment 112 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 4
(4) ‘debit card transaction’ means an card payment transaction included with prepaid cards linked to a current or deposit access account to which a transaction is debitewhich is debited directly and fin less than or 48 hours after the transaction has been authorised/initiatedally from the card holder's payment account within the next days.
Amendment 120 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
(5) ‘credit card transaction’ means an card payment transaction where the transaction is settled more than 48 hours after the transaction has beich is first debited from or registered on card holder's intermediary credit account and later debited from or paid by individually or in batches by the card holder through the use of another payment authorised/initiatedccount or payment instrument;
Amendment 146 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 15
(15) ‘three party payment card scheme’ means a payment card scheme in which payments arcan be made from a payment account held by the scheme on behalf of the cardholder to a payment account held by the scheme on behalf of the payee, and card based transactions based on the same structure. When a three party payment card scheme licenses other payment service providers for the issuance and/or the acquiring of payment cards, it is considered as a four party payment card scheme;
Amendment 158 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – title
Article 3 – title
Interchange fees for cross-border consumer debit or credit card transactions
Amendment 163 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1
Article 3 – paragraph 1
1. With effect from twosix months after the entry into force of this Regulation, payment services providers shall not offer or request for cross-border debit card transactions a per transaction interchange fee or other agreed remuneration with an equivalent object or effect of more than the lower amount of 7 eurocents or 0,21 % of the value of the transaction.
Amendment 178 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2
Article 3 – paragraph 2
2. With effect from twosix months after the entry into force of this Regulation, payment services providers shall not offer or request for cross-border credit card transactions a per transaction interchange fee or other agreed remuneration with an equivalent object or effect of more than 0,3the lower amount of 14 eurocents or 0,15 % of the value of the transaction.
Amendment 189 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4
Article 4
Amendment 231 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1
Article 5 – paragraph 1
For the purposes of the application of the caps referred to in Article 3 and Article 4, any net compensation received by an issuing bank from a payment card schemen acquirer directly or via a payment card scheme, payment processor or other operator in relation to payment transactions or related activities shall be treated as part of the interchange fee.
Amendment 240 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 6 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. The interchange fee of the country of the acquirer shall apply to cross border transactions
Amendment 251 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 a (new)
Article 7 a (new)
Article 7a Obligation to accept transactions from any acquirer Three party schemes and four party issuers shall accept transactions made using cards issued by them also directly from any acquirer following the general business rules and standards as well as the interchange rules laid down by this Regulation. Three party schemes operating within the Union shall ensure that their system is technically interoperable with other systems of card processing entities within the Union through the use of standards developed by international or European standardisation bodies. Three party processing entities or systems shall not adopt or apply business rules that restrict interoperability with other processing entities within the Union.
Amendment 254 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 1
Article 8 – paragraph 1
1. Any schemes rules and rules in licensing agreements that hinder or prevent an issuer from co-badging two or more different brands of payment instruments on a card, telecommunication, digital or IT device shall be prohibited, when this otherwise would be technically possible. Issuers shall not create technical barriers for co- badging when interoperable rules make co-badging possible.
Amendment 293 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 4
Article 10 – paragraph 4
4. Issuing payment service providers shall ensure that their payment instruments are visibly and electronically identifiable, enabling payees to identify unequivocally which brands and categories of prepaid, debit, credit or commercial cards or card based payments based on these are chosen by the payer, when these kind of categories affect the business rules or terms for accepting the cards. At minimum the merchant systems should be able to identify the merchant and interchange fee category of the payment instruments and when this is not possible the default value should be the corresponding instrument with the lowest merchant fee.
Amendment 298 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 11 – paragraph 3
Article 11 – paragraph 3