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~ Wijnand Jongen ~

The combination of these regulatory changes and the
complementary work done at the EU level on standardisation
could certainly open new opportunities for merchants. While
we will still have to see how this will truly materialise in
innovative solutions, specifically retail use cases, there is a
lot to watch for as solutions start burgeoning in various EU
markets.

Empowering merchants through more transparency
For merchants to be able to consider the benefits of one
payment solution over another or to adequately advocate
for themselves in negotiations on costs and services, they
need to be able to access and process more information. For
merchants, this is a challenge.

Recent studies have shown that merchants (especially SMEs)
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can struggle in getting information from their acquiring
partners, such as: how much do I pay and why? Can I transfer
my accounts easily if I find a better acquirer elsewhere?
COMPANY PLUS
Merchants are rarely empowered to request further
transparency on the services they receive and the breakdown
of their costs. This can impact merchants’ ability to control
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and improve the quality of services and, as a result, hinder
the frictionless payment experience customers are looking for.
It also places merchants in a weaker position for negotiation
with their payment partners and can structurally impact the
level of competition in the market. This clearly needs to be
addressed.

Participate in public affairs
There have been clear reports over the past years of rising
costs of card payments, notably due to the rise in fees activities
imposed by international card schemes. While the EU
attempted in the past to regulate some of the international Get weekly and monthly monitoring
schemes-related fees (through the Interchange Fee Directive), reports on relevant policy issues
other unregulated fees have increased, cancelling out most
of the benefits merchants should have experienced. This Get the annual European B2C
also includes the emergence of new costs related to Strong Ecommerce Report for free
Customer Authentication and the use of 3D-Secure (which
merchants are obligated to rely on).
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The lack of transparency with regard to the breakdown of
service charge costs of payment partners makes it harder for
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merchants to identify and negotiate their payment costs and
on Ecommerce Europe's website
service charges. Without detailed information, it is impossible
for merchants to advocate for themselves.

We, therefore, hope and urge the EU to continue to
For more information visit our
investigate this important issue and explore potential
website or email us:
remedies in collaboration with online merchants. Giving
www.ecommerce-europe.eu
the tools for merchants to better control how they deal
with payment would result in safer and potentially cheaper [email protected]
solutions for consumers and would therefore benefit everyone.
E-commerce Europe will continue to advocate for this in the
years to come. ••

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