Joint Statement on the treatment of Merchant Initiated Transactions under the Payment Services Regulation

Under its new proposal for a Payment Services Regulation (PSR), from 28 June 2023, the European Commission reinforced the refund rights for merchant-initiated transactions (MITs). It does so by extending the unconditional refund right under Article 62(1) that exists for direct debits (DDs) to all MIT transactions. In essence, this means that payers would be able to request a “no questions asked” refund from payment service providers (PSPs) within eight weeks of any MIT.

We would encourage co-legislators to consider removing this obligation for unconditional refund rights for MITs, with the exception of DDs.

With the ongoing negotiations by Member States and the European Parliament, the co- signatories to this statement aim to draw the attention of policy-makers to the unintended consequences of introducing unconditional refund rights to MITs and also to clarify some misconceptions around the use of MITs.

See the attached document for the full statement.