Responsibility for the on-line misuse of electronic payment instruments in Portuguese case law

Raquel Sofia Ribeiro de Lima

Keywords

Electronic Payments Instrument; Framework Contract for Payment Services; Internet; Homebankig; Fraud; Allocation of losses.

Abstract

The issue of online payments fraud, in many cases, continues to be the main obstacle when making purchases on the internet. The fraudulent use of payment instruments, and the consequent allocation of losses, is the subject that creates more litigation between the user of the instrument and the provider of the said service, which, in the last years, has led to many of this issues being settled in Court. With this paper we aim to explore the contract that allows the use of electronic payments instruments, as well as the fraud and allocation of losses between the parties, essentially analyzing the solutions provided by the Payment Services, introduced in our national legal system by the Decree-Law nº 317/2009, 30th of October, taking into consideration some of the jurisprudence that has been published about the subject. Finally, we will highlight some of the predicted changes of the New Payment Services Directive.