11 January 2012

Commission launched consultation on its Green Paper on card internet and mobile payments

The Green Paper assesses the current landscape of card, internet and mobile payments in Europe, identifies the gaps between the current situation and the vision of a fully integrated payments market, and the barriers which have created these gaps. The objective of the Green Paper is to launch a broad consultation process with stakeholders to validate or contribute to the Commission’s analysis and to help identify the right way to improve market integration.

The main issues identified in the paper concern: 

•         market access and entry for existing and new service providers,
•         payment security and data protection,
•         transparent and efficient pricing of payment services,
•         technical standardisation,
•         inter-operability between service providers.

An additional crucial issue, overarching all the aspects above, is the one of proper governance. In other words, how can the remedies for the obstacles identified be best put in place so as to ensure that the benefits materialise in a reasonable time frame.

While the Commission has been active on card payments previously, mostly in the framework of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and by applying competition law (see the Commission's Decisions addressed to MasterCard and Visa), internet and mobile payments are relatively new policy fields at European level. When preparing the Green Paper, the Commission has therefore looked at a very broad range of policy areas that are potentially relevant to these fields.

Based on the Green Paper consultation adopted today, the Commission seeks the views of stakeholders as to which obstacles hinder further market integration and how these could be resolved. The deadline for submitting contributions to the consultation is 11 April 2012. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the consultation feedback, the Commission will announce the next steps to be taken before the summer of 2012.

• Press release
• Full Green Paper
• FAQ - MEMO

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