Migration and Home Affairs

Public Consultations

Deadline: 
Tuesday, 23 May, 2017
Title: 
Consultation on combatting fraud and counterfeiting on non-cash means of payment

Languages

The text of this page is also available here in most European Union official languages.

Policy field(s)

Borders and Security; Justice and Fundamental Rights; Consumers; Fraud prevention

Target group(s)

The Commission would in particular like to encourage members of the following target groups to participate:

  • Law enforcement authorities (police and judiciary)
  • Financial Institutions
  • Credit Cards schemes
  • Mobile payment services (card-based and peer-to-peer)
  • Internet payment companies
  • Money transfer companies
  • Airlines
  • e-Commerce vendors
  • Virtual currencies industry
  • Consumers organisations
  • Victims associations
  • Internet Service Providers
  • Academia
  • General public

Period of consultation

From 01.03.2017 to 24.05.2017

Objective of the consultation

Non-cash payments constitute an increasing share of overall payments. With the rising prevalence of e-commerce and other transactions at a distance, their importance for the economy is growing. Security has continually improved with the introduction of standards applying to all Payment Service Providers for all electronic transactions and for access to the online banking environment.

However, available data shows that frauds are still on the rise and affect the trust of the public in digital services and undermine the strengthening of the digital single market. Fraudsters manage to adapt rapidly their modi operandi to evolving technologies and exploit legal loopholes and discrepancies, setting up transnational criminal networks, posing challenges to law enforcement.

In the European Agenda on Security , the Commission committed to reviewing and possibly extending legislation on combatting fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payments to take account of newer forms of crime and counterfeiting in financial instruments, decrease its occurrence and deterring potential criminal activity thereby reinforcing the trust of consumers in the digital single market and strengthening data protection more effectively.

As outlined in the relevant Inception Impact Assessment, the objectives of such initiative would be:

  • Enabling law enforcement investigations against new forms of non-cash payment fraud;
  • Enabling stronger cooperation between Member States' law enforcement agencies and with Europol on non-cash payment fraud;
  • Enabling stronger cooperation between the public and the private sectors;
  • Empowering the private sector to better protect itself and its consumers against non-cash payment fraud;
  • Strengthening the rights of victims of non-cash payment fraud.

Against this background, the European Commission is holding this public consultation to gather stakeholders' views on the functioning of the existing legislation and on the need for a new initiative to address new and evolving forms of non-cash payment fraud.

How to submit your contribution

You can contribute to this public consultation by filling out the online questionnaire. Filling out the questionnaire takes 5-10 minutes for individuals and approximately 15 minutes for experts and practitioners.

  • If you are answering this consultation as a citizen, please submit here your contribution.
  • If you are answering this consultation on behalf of an organisation or a public authority, or you are an expert or practitioner in the field of combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment please submit here your contribution.

You can also download the list of questions in PDF format directly from the survey page.

In addition, you can also submit position papers to a dedicated functional mailbox: HOME-CYBERCRIME@ec.europa.eu

Replies may be submitted in any EU official language. Given possible delays in translating comments submitted in some languages, contributions in English are welcome, as they will help the Commission to process the survey more swiftly. Versions of the questionnaire in all EU official languages will be made available as soon as ready, during the first month of the consultation; please note that this will not impact on the consultation period: the deadline for contributing is 24 May 2017 regardless to the language version of the questionnaire you are replying to.

As part of the European Transparency Initiative, the Commission asks organisations who wish to participate in public consultations to provide the Commission and the public with information about whom and what they represent, their objectives, funding and structures, by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct.

  • If you are a registered organisation, please fill in your Register ID number in the questionnaire. Your contribution will then be considered as representing the views of your organisation.
  • If your organisation is not registered, you have the opportunity to register now. Then return to this page to submit your contribution as a registered organisation.

If an organisation decides not to provide this information, it is the Commission's stated policy to list the contribution as part of the individual contributions (Consultation Standards, see COM (2002) 704, and Communication on ETI Follow-up, see COM (2007) 127 of 21/03/2007). These replies will be published separately.

Received contributions will be published on the Internet. It is important to read the specific privacy statement attached to this consultation for information on how your personal data and contribution will be dealt with.

View the consultation document

Reference documents and other, related consultations

Results of consultation and next steps

The European Commission launched an open public consultation on 1 March 2017, which aimed to gather feedback from the public at large on the problem definition, the relevance and effectiveness of the current legal framework in the field of non-cash payment fraud, as well as options, and their possible impacts to tackle existing issues.

The consultation closed after 12 weeks, on 24 May 2017. Thirty-three practitioners and twenty-one members of the general public answered the questionnaires of the open public consultation. Four practitioners provided additional inputs through written contributions. Practitioners included:

  • private companies (private sector);
  • international or national public authorities (law enforcement agencies, judicial authorities and EU institutions and bodies);
  • trade, business or professional associations (e.g. national banking federations);
  • non-governmental organisations, platforms or networks;
  • professional consultancies, law firms, self-employed consultants

Documents in relation to this consultation

Contact details

  • Responsible service:
    European Commission
    DG Migration and Home Affairs
    Unit D.4 - Cybercrime
  • E-mail:
    HOME-CYBERCRIME@ec.europa.eu
  • Postal address:
    European Commission
    Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME)
    Unit D4 - Cybercrime
    Rue du Luxembourg 46, B-1049 Brussels
    Belgium