The Smart Payment Association (SPA) points out the the EU's "MIF Regulation" eliminates the "honour all card" rule from June 2016-- bringing about complications to both retailers and consumers making use of prepaid, credit or debit cards.
Article 10, clause 5 of the MIF Regulation (aka EU Regulation 2015/751 - on Interchange Fees for Card-Based Payment Transactions) states "issuers shall ensure that their payment instruments are electronically identifiable and, in the case of newly issued card-based payment instruments, also visibly identifiable, enabling payees and payers to unequivocally identify which brands and categories of prepaid cards, debit cards, credit cards or commercial cards are chosen by the payer.” Fair enough, but how will it actually work? The EU offers no guidelines to the the range of issues involved in the complex implementation, as listed below.
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