Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Report on evaluation of the e-money directive

can be downloaded here, to find out:
Almost all interviewed stakeholders deem that there is an urgent need for clarification and to develop a clear understanding of which institutions, schemes and business models fall within the scope of the EMD, and those which do not. The most controversial issue in this context is the question of the EMD’s applicability to mobile network operators. Almost all Member States have de facto exempted these from the application of the EMD for the time being, but the justifications for this vary. A majority of Member States, as well as industry players, emphasised there is a need for further guidance on this issue. The national authorities in certain Member States also hold somewhat diverging views regarding the classification of a number of other products and schemes (pre-funded personalised online payment schemes, electronic service vouchers, and smartcards for public transport).

What's interesting is that it says that most member states have de facto exempted a group of players in the market. Isn't that a bit odd?

I may have missed some legal tutorials now and then, but I always thought it was the prerogative of parliament to determine the rules and exemption regimes and the duty for member states to stick to implementing the text as is. But apparently we now allow member states to not only implement but also de facto change the rules...