Title: The impact of the directive on payment services in the internal market on Danish and Belgian legislation on fraudulent payment transactions

Authors: Reinhard Steennot, Rene Franz Henschel

Addresses: Financial Law Institute, Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 4, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. ' Aarhus School of Business, Center for International Business Law (CIBL), Aarhus University, Hermodsvej 22, 8230 Aabyhoej, Denmark

Abstract: In December 2007, the European Directive on payment services in the internal market was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This directive, which has to be transposed into national legislation before 1 November 2009, contains many rules on payments, including rules on the allocation of liability in case of fraudulent use of a payment instrument. The aim of this paper is to briefly discuss the regime concerning fraudulent payment transactions which is incorporated in the new directive and, further, to find out in what way the directive had or will have an impact on Danish and Belgian legislation. More specifically, we will examine how the rules incorporated in the European directive, which is based on the principle of maximum harmonisation, are implemented in Belgium and Denmark, whether the implementations are in accordance with the directive and, finally, whether the directive and the implementations reduce or strengthen the protection of payment service users in the two countries and promote the creation of a common internal market for payment services.

Keywords: fraudulent payment transactions; payment services directive; liability allocation; fraud; Denmark; Belgium; credit cards; European Union; Europe; payment instruments; harmonisation of laws; internal market; private law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2010.029610

International Journal of Private Law, 2010 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.179 - 196

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

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