Card payment subscriptions – changes to happen soon

European Commission is working on the introduction of changes in the process of authorizing payment card subscriptions on-line. The EC approached major card organizations (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) with an application to introduce additional warnings in Internet-based card payments, which would secure the cardholders from accepting unwanted subscription programs.

Nowadays such subscription programs have become popular – as they are very convenient for cardholders – and are often used in daily life payments e.g. for App Store, Netflix, Spotify, Google Pay, and other similar services. However, when not controlled properly, such subscriptions may lead to overburdening the consumers.

Card organizations are now obliged to address the idea presented by European Commission and possibly also propose a specific solution that would guarantee that each card-based subscription program is authorized only by well-informed cardholders.