Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

RemovedArticle 28 – paragraph 2: 2. Front-end services provided by the European Central bank referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, shall not provide for customer relationships, that shall solely be provided by payment service providers in their role in the digital euro distribution as laid down in Article 13 and under Directive (EU) 2015/2366. The European Central Bank shall not have access to any personal data in relation to the front-end services developed by the European Central Bank and used by the payment services providers.

Added5. After completion of the pilot testing, Member States shall take adequate measures ▌ to raise awareness among citizens and merchants about the availability and features of the digital euro, as well as about the possibilities of access to it, its use, and its impact on resilience, inclusiveness, and accessibility. That information campaign shall be conducted in close coordination with all relevant stakeholders, including the European Central Bank, the national central banks and market participants.

RemovedArticle 28 – paragraph 3 – point a: (a) digital euro payment services use the official digital euro logo and comply with the technical and security standards set up or certified by the European Central Bank;

Added1. The digital euro shall have legal tender status.

RemovedArticle 28 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. The European Central Bank shall develop the technical, operational and security standards, including the certification process where applicable, to the offline digital euro devices and the digital euro payment accounts to ensure the resilient, safe and smooth execution of payments.

Added2. The legal tender status of the digital euro shall entail its mandatory acceptance, at full face value, with the power to discharge from a payment obligation.

RemovedArticle 28 – paragraph 3 b (new): 3b. For the purpose of Chapter VI, payment services providers outside the euro area shall distribute only offline digital euro devices certified by the European Central Bank pursuant to paragraph 3a or by the corresponding national central bank if that is provided for in the arrangements referred to in Articles 18(1) and 19(1).

Added3. In accordance with the mandatory acceptance of the digital euro, the payee shall not refuse digital euro tendered in payment to comply with that obligation. To that end, where the payee is required to accept the digital euro, the payer shall be entitled to choose between an online and offline digital euro payment transaction.

RemovedArticle 29 – paragraph 1: 1. Payment service providers executing online digital euro payment transactions shall verify whether any of their digital euro users are listed persons or entities. Payment service providers shall carry out such verifications immediately after the entry into force of any new or amended restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available, and at least once every calendar day.

Added4. In accordance with the acceptance at full face value of the digital euro, the monetary value of digital euro tendered in payment of a debt shall be equal to the value of the monetary debt. Surcharges and discounts on the payment of debt with the digital euro shall be prohibited.

RemovedArticle 29 – paragraph 2: 2. During the execution of an online digital euro payment transaction, the payer’s payment service provider and the payee’s payment service provider involved in the execution of that transaction shall not verify whether the payer or the payee whose digital euro payment accounts are used for the execution of that digital euro payment transaction are listed persons or entities in addition to carrying out verifications under paragraph 1.

Added5. In accordance with the power of the digital euro to discharge from a payment obligation, a payer shall be able to discharge himself from a payment obligation by tendering digital euro to the payee.

RemovedArticle 29 – paragraph 3: 3. A payment service provider that has failed to carry out the verifications referred to in paragraph 1 and executes an online digital euro payment transaction causing another payment service provider involved in the execution of that digital euro payment transaction to fail to freeze assets of listed persons or entities, or to make funds or economic resources available to such persons or entities, shall compensate the financial damage caused to the other payment service provider resulting from penalties imposed on that other payment service provider under restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available.

Added5 a. For the purposes of ensuring the legal tender status of the digital euro referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the full face value of the digital euro shall be preserved in all basic digital euro payment services set out in Annex II.

RemovedArticle 29 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Payment service providers providing offline digital euro devices shall verify whether any of the persons requesting an offline digital euro device are listed persons or entities. Payment service providers shall carry out such verifications immediately after the entry into force of any new or amended restrictive measures adopted in accordance with Article 215 TFEU providing for asset freeze or prohibition of making funds or economic resources available, and at least once every calendar day.

Added1. ▌

RemovedArticle 30 – paragraph 3: 3. Final settlement of offline digital euro payment transactions shall occur at the moment when the funds in the payer’s offline digital euro device are directly transferred to the payee’s offline digital euro device without any intermediation of any payment service provider or digital euro settlement infrastructure.

Added2. Without prejudice to the legal tender status of euro banknotes and coins as laid down in Regulation (EU) …/…* , the digital euro shall have legal tender status for ▌payments of a monetary debt denominated in euro to a payee residing or established in the euro area.

RemovedArticle 31 – paragraph 1: 1. Payment service providers shall enable online digital euro users at their request to switch their digital euro payment accounts to other payment service providers while maintaining the same account number.

AddedBy way of derogation from Article 7(3) and Article 8, a payee shall be entitled to refuse digital euro in any of the following cases:

RemovedArticle 31 – paragraph 2: 2. In exceptional circumstances where a payment service provider is operationally not in a position to provide online digital euro payment services to digital euro users for a prolonged period of time, or has lost the online digital euro payment account-related data concerned, the European Central Bank and national central banks may authorise the switching of digital euro payment accounts held with that payment service provider to another payment service provider designated by the digital euro user. That switching shall enable the new payment service provider to complete the switching without relying on the unavailable payment service provider.

Added(a) where the payee is a small or micro enterprise ▌, or is a non-profit legal entity as defined in Article 2, point (18), of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council, unless it accepts other digital means of payment;

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 1: 1. The European Central Bank shall facilitate the fraud detection and prevention tasks that payment service providers shall perform under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 by establishing a general fraud detection and prevention mechanism for online digital euro transactions to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the digital euro. That general fraud detection and prevention mechanism may be operated directly by the European Central Bank or by the providers of support services designated by the European Central Bank.

Added(b) where a refusal is made in good faith and where such refusal is based on legitimate, technical and temporary grounds in line with the principle of proportionality in view of concrete circumstances beyond the control of the payee;

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 4: 4. For the purpose of this Article, payment service providers shall provide the fraud detection and prevention mechanism with information referred to in Annex V payment service providers shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that the European Central Bank or the providers of support services shall not be able to directly or indirectly identify the digital euro users on the basis of the information provided to the fraud detection and prevention mechanism.

Added(c) where the payee is a natural person acting:

RemovedArticle 32 – paragraph 4 a (new): 4a. The European Central Bank shall put in place state-of-the-art technical safety measures to ensure that for the digital euro the incidence of fraud is not higher than that observed for comparable digital means of payment and, specifically for the offline digital euro, the incidence of double spending or counterfeiting is not higher than for cash.

Added- as a self-employed person in the course of a commercial activity, unless the payee accepts other digital means of payment; or

RemovedArticle 33 – paragraph 1: 1. Without prejudice to Article 6 paragraph (7) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, original equipment manufacturers of mobile devices and providers of electronic communication services within the meaning of Article 2(1) Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council47 shall allow providers of front end services and providers of European Digital Identity Wallets effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the hardware features and software features necessary for storing and transferring data to process online or offline digital euro transactions, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. / 47 Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018, establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 17.12.2018, p. 36).

Added- in the course of a purely personal or household activity.

RemovedArticle 34 – title: Processing personal data by payment service providers

Added(d) where, prior to the payment, the payee has agreed with the payer on a different means of payment, subject to Article 10.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a: (a) the enforcement of limits, including the verification of whether prospective or existing digital euro users have an offline digital euro device or digital euro accounts with another payment service providers, as referred to in Article 16;

Added(da) at an unmanned point of sale that does not accept any other digital means of payment.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point b: (b) funding and defunding as referred to in Article 13 (2) to (3), and digital euro payment transactions as referred to in Article 13(4);

AddedFor the purposes of point (b), the burden of proof to establish that legitimate and temporary grounds existed in a particular case and that the refusal was proportionate shall be on the payee.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point c: (c) the provision of offline digital euro as referred to in point (c) of Annex I;

AddedWhere the payer is a consumer or a self-employed person engaged in a commercial activity, any contractual terms relied on by payees subject to the obligation to accept the digital euro at the point of interaction which have the object or ▌effect of excluding the use of the digital euro by▌ payers of monetary debts denominated in euro, shall be negotiated individually. Such contractual terms shall not ▌ be regarded as having been negotiated individually ▌ where they have been drafted in advance and where the payer has ▌not been able to influence their substance ▌, particularly in the context of a pre-formulated standard form contract. For the purposes of this paragraph, ‘consumer’ means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his or her trade, business, craft or profession.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 (a) to (c), of this Article, Annex V lays down the types of personal data.

AddedThe payees referred to in the first subparagraph shall not engage in commercial practices that have the object or effect of excluding the use of the digital euro by payers of monetary debts denominated in euro.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1: The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to update the types of personal data listed in Annex V.

AddedContractual terms and commercial practices prohibited pursuant to the first and second subparagraphs shall not be binding on the payer.

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2: Payment service providers shall be considered to be the controllers of personal data as regards the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Where an online digital euro payment account held by one payment service provider is linked with a non-digital euro payment account held by another payment service provider in accordance with Article 13(4), these payment service providers shall be joint controllers.

Added▌

RemovedArticle 34 – paragraph 4: 4. Payment service providers shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures including state-of-the-art security and privacy-preserving measures to ensure that any data communicated to the European Central Bank and the national central banks or to providers of support services do not directly or indirectly identify individual digital euro users or link them to specific transactions.

Added1. The digital euro shall be convertible with euro banknotes and coins at par. Payment service providers that provide cash services shall provide conversion services between digital euro and euro banknotes subject to the same terms and conditions in which they provide such services for non-digital euro payment accounts.

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) provision of access for payment service providers to the online digital euro settlement infrastructure and support the exchange of messages between payment service providers;

Added2. Payees of a monetary debt denominated in euro shall accept payments in digital euro according to the provisions of this Regulation, irrespective of whether they accept payments in euro banknotes and coins in accordance with Regulation (EU) …/…* ▌ Where the acceptance of euro banknotes and coins and of the digital euro is mandatory in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation and Regulation (EU) …/…** ▌, the payer is entitled to choose the means of payment.

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new): (aa) provision of access for online digital euro users to the European Central Bank front-end services;

Added1. Within the framework of Regulation (EU) .../…*** and Directive (EU) 2015/2366, and without prejudice to Article 14(1) and (2) of this Regulation, payment service providers may provide the digital euro payment services set out in Annex I to:

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) safeguarding the security, resilience and integrity of the digital euro settlement infrastructure of the online digital euro accounts and of local storage devices for the offline digital euro devices;

Added(a) natural or legal persons residing or established in▌ Member States whose currency is the euro;

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 1 – point d: (d) supporting verification by payment service providers of whether a prospective user already has online digital euro payment accounts with other payment service providers in order to prevent the circumvention of limits in accordance with Article 16;

Added(b) natural or legal persons who no longer reside nor are established in Member States whose currency is the euro, but who opened a digital euro payment account at the time they resided or were established in those Member State.▌

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 1 – point e: (e) in exceptional circumstances as defined in Article 31(2), authorising payment service providers in switching online digital euro payment accounts held with a payment services provider to another payment service providers designated by the online digital euro user.

Added(c) visitors to the euro area;

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 2: 2. For the purposes referred to in paragraph 1, Annex VI lays down the types of personal data.

Added(d) natural or legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is not the euro, subject to the conditions laid down in Article 18;

RemovedArticle 35 – paragraph 3: 3. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to update the types of personal data listed in Annex VI.

Added(e) natural or legal persons residing or established in third countries, including territories under a monetary agreement with the Union, subject to the conditions laid down in Articles 19 and 20;.