PayPal in the EU - new regulations - may sellers charge buyers for transaction fees?

[Will]

Are EU PayPal users aware of the New EU Directive that comes into Force across the EU, Directive. on payment service providers(PSD) Article 52(2) "the payment service provider(PayPal) shall not prevent the payee(Seller) from requesting from the payer(Buyer) a charge or from offering him a reduction for the use of a given payment instrument." This means that surcharging(PayPal user agreement 4.5) cannot be forbidden by payment service providers. This (PSD) comes into Force across the EU from 1st november 2009.

[Modee]

Psp 52(2)

These regulations are fairly new. They date from June 2009,

It's really much more complex than what you say above:
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“Where a payment transaction does not involve any currency conversion, Member States shall require that the payee pays the charges levied by his payment service provider, and the payer pays the charges levied by his payment service provider.” Art. 52(2)

There are two different readings of the implications of Art. 52(2). According to the first position, which has been supported by statements from the European Commission, the PSD stipulates that the principle of sharing the cost of a payment between the payer and the payee will be mandatory for all transactions covered by the PSD, e.g. credit transfers, direct debits as well as card and mobile payments, except for payments involving a currency conversion, which Art. 52(2) explicitly excludes from the general rule (see following section for more details). Applying this principle means that the payer’s PSP bills the payer for its part of the charges while the payee’s PSP bills the payee for its parts of the charges. According to this position, the mandatory charging code for payments carrying a charging code would be SHARE.

As the PSD does not explicitly mention specific charging codes but instead lays down the governing charging principles, another position taken on charging codes is that PSPs should propose the SHARE principle as default charging practice to their PSUs. However, payers wishing to opt for an OUR payment, i.e. a payment where the originating party covers all the charges involved, would be allowed to do so provided that the payer’s PSP is able to provide full cost transparency, i.e. a complete overview of the charges involved in the requested transaction, in line with the information requirements laid down in Art. 41 and 42(3)(a).

One of the main intentions of the PSD is to provide for better transparency, which in case of OUR transactions might not always be sufficiently guaranteed if the payer does not know in advance the exact costs for such a transaction. If, however, the payer is informed beforehand on the exact cost for a specific OUR transaction, the conditions related to such a transaction would be as transparent as for a respective SHARE trans- action and the payer would be in a position to prudently decide which charging code fits his/her needs best.

To sum it up, in order for PSPs to determine which charging principles and codes have to be applied when generating payments, they need to closely study the principles stipulated by the legislation in place in the countries where they operate.

ALSO:

Are PSPs allowed to deduct any charges from the payment amount?

“1. Member States shall require the payment service provider of the payer, the payment service provider of the payee and any intermediaries of the payment service providers to transfer the full amount of the payment transaction and refrain from deducting charges from the amount transferred.

2. However, the payee and his payment service provider may agree that the payment service provider deduct its charges from the amount transferred before crediting it to the payee. In such a case, the full amount of the payment transaction and charges shall be separated in the information given to the payee.” Art. 67(1–2)

The only PSP that is allowed to deduct charges from the payment amount is the payee’s PSP and it may only do so if it has agreed with the payee on such a deduction. In this case, the payee’s PSP has to separately specify the full amount and the charges deducted in the information it provides to the payee.