Amendment to the Act on Payment Services - Adaptation of the CBPR Regulation

An amendment to the Act on Payment Services is currently subject to a public consultation conducted by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic; the consultation shall take place until June 24, 2019. The Act amendment is under preparation since the EU Regulation on cross – border payments (CBPR Regulation) has recently been amended. Concurrently, it will also convenient to adopt changes to the Act on the grounds of the expert public’s feedback to the new Act on Payment Services that came into effect on January 13, 2018 (and its first amendment became effective as of April 1, 2019).

The consultation document mentions the following novelties introduced by the Act:

• strong user authentication in relation to payment security standards;
• prohibition of surcharging – i.e. the charging of additional fees by the trader for a payment with a particular payment instrument;
• decrease of the user’s liability limit for unauthorized payment (where the pay credit card got lost/stolen) from EUR 150 to EUR 50;
• introduction of new payment services of providing the account information and of placing indirect payment orders.

The Ministry of Finance is planning to use the outcomes of this public consultation during the course of preparation of the amendment to the Act on Payment Services. You can find more information on the website of the Ministry of Finance here.