Within the context of the ongoing trilogue on the EU Payment Services Regulation (PSR), Ecommerce Europe has joined forces with 17 trade associations from across diverse sectors, including technology, culture, media, content provision, banking, hospitality, travel, e-commerce, and fintech, to express collective concern about the proposed introduction of an unconditional refund right for merchant-initiated transactions (MITs) under Article 62(1).
MITs are widely used in e-commerce and represent approximately 30–35% of all e-commerce transactions, a figure expected to grow with the rise of new payment methods. These include use cases such as pre-paid wallets, subscriptions, delayed or no-show charges, reauthorisations for rental extensions, partial or instalment payments.
The ability for merchants to assess refund requests is essential, particularly when there is clear proof that goods or services were delivered, or that all conditions of the payment mandate were met. Applying an unconditional refund right in such cases would expose merchants to unfair liability, especially for consumable goods, digital content, and services where recovery of the product is not possible.
To maintain a balanced and fraud-resistant payments ecosystem, the unconditional refund right should remain limited to SEPA Direct Debits (SDDs), as is currently the case. We therefore urge co-legislators to support the European Parliament’s position and exclude MITs from the scope of Article 62(1) and Recital 109.
Read the full statement here.