Between Bitcoins and mobile payments: will the European Commission's new proposal provide more legal certainty?

Abstract

Mobile payments are on the rise, as are virtual currencies emitted by private market players or by automated decentralized systems. The Payment Services Directive and E-money Directive form the legal framework for protecting consumers in transactions with payment services and e-money providers. However, the unclear scope of applicability of that legal framework could lead to legal uncertainty. Moreover, evolutions in the market, such as Bitcoin, are excluded from its scope. The European Commission has proposed a new framework, which will be analysed to establish whether it can bring more legal certainty to the scope of application of this legal framework.