To realise the vision of a common European payments market the EU Commission has drawn up new regulations, intended to harmonise consumer protection laws in the European countries. These regulations will be introduced into Swedish legislation no earlier than April 1 2010.
What are the contents of the new law?
The new law will regulate your right to request a refund on an executed Autogiro payment, thereby providing improved customer protection. These regulations together with the bank’s obligation to help you out if anything goes wrong will provide an improved sense of security when choosing the Autogiro service for your payments.
What is the difference from today?
Already today you can turn to your bank or the payee if something has gone wrong with your Autogiro payment. The difference once the new law is implemented is that you will be legally entitled to request and receive refunds of executed Autogiro payments from your bank, provided that certain criteria are met.
The refund option is applicable in the following scenarios:
- An Autogiro payment was executed although a mandate had never been signed
- An Autogiro payment was executed after the mandate had been terminated
- An Autogiro payment was executed according to a valid mandate, but the amount was not stated or considered unreasonable compared to what could be expected.
What will the new law entail for you (the payer)?
The new law means that if your payee for some reason does not approve the refund on an executed Autogiro payment when you are entitled to one you may turn to your bank. The new law will require them to investigate – and possibly repay – the amount in question to you.
The investigation obligation will be time limited
In order to get help from your bank you must request a refund within a certain time span. If you claim that there was no mandate at the time of the executed Autogiro payment you must request refund no later than 13 months after the original payment date. If the amount was not stated on your mandate and you feel that the amount was unreasonable you must request a refund no later than eight weeks after the original payment date.