Soon: card reader required for online payments above 10 euro

Several sources indicate that the European Banking Authority wants to make a card reader mandatory for every online purchase worth more than 10 euro in order to fight fraud. Banks and web shops feel the measure is exaggerated.

Problem for mobile payments

“We feel the use of a card reader should folllow a risk analysis made by the web shop through risk management“, banking federation Febelfin’s spokesperson Marchand said. The European interest group for web shops, Emota, says that customers who frequent certain web shops should be able to pay more easily. Another argument is that fraud often occurs with smaller sums and that the European Banking Authority’s new rule would basically miss the mark entirely.

“Web shops now have their own safety policy to indicate when a customer has to identify and when they do not”, Emota’s Maurits Bruggink wrote in a letter to the European Commission. “This also halts any innovation designed to improve a customer’s online shopping experience.” Mobile payments would also receive a blow if this rule is enforced.

The European Banking Authority created the measure on behalf of the European Commission, which is looking to improve online payments’ security, although Emota feels the Commission has taken things too far.

“Will not be this bad”

Betaalvereniging Nederlands’ deputy director, Gijs Boudewijn, does not think it will be this bad. He points out that the European Banking Authority merely wants a stricter authentication process for every new one-click payment, which can be done through a card reader but also with a range of apps.

“With the iDEAL payment option, your identity has been confirmed by your bank account, but things are more complicated when it comes to credit cards. We are one of the leaders in this field, but several other European countries do not have as many safeguards and that is why the EBA wants to create better legislation for those countries”, he told Emerce.