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(17)
The digital euro should have legal tender status for offline digital euro payment
transactions occurring within in the euro area, similarly to euro banknotes and coins
which have legal tender status in the euro area. The digital euro should also have legal
tender status for online digital euro payment transactions made to a payee residing or
established in the euro area, where the payer is also residing or established in the euro
area. Similarly, the digital euro should have legal tender status for online digital euro
payment transactions made to a payee residing or established in the euro area, where
the payer is not residing or established in the euro area.
(18)
Since the digital euro requires the capacity to accept digital means of payment,
imposing an obligation of mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro on all
payees could be disproportionate. To this end, exceptions to the mandatory acceptance
of payments in digital euro should be provided for natural persons acting in the course
of a purely personal or household activity. Exceptions to mandatory acceptance should
also be provided for microenterprises, which are particularly important in the euro area
for the development of entrepreneurship job creation and innovation, playing a vital
role in shaping the economy. Union policies and actions should reduce regulatory
burdens for enterprises of this size. Exceptions to mandatory acceptance should also
be provided for non-profit legal entities which promote the public interest and serve
the public good performing a variety of goals of societal interest, including equity,
education, health, environmental protection and human rights. For microenterprises
and non-profit legal entities, the acquisition of the required infrastructure and the
acceptance costs would be disproportionate. They should therefore be exempted from
the obligation to accept payments in digital euro. In such cases, other means for the
settlement of monetary debts should remain available. Nevertheless, microenterprises
and non-profit legal entities that accept comparable digital means of payment from
payers should be subject to the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro.
Comparable digital means of payment should include debit card payment or instant
payment or other future technological solutions used at the point of interaction, but
should exclude credit transfer and direct debit that are not initiated at the point of
interaction. Microenterprises and non-profit legal entities that do not accept
comparable digital means of payment from their payers in settlement of a debt (e.g.
they only accept euro banknotes and coins), but may use digital payments in
settlement of a debt to their payees (e.g. they pay with credit transfers), should not be
subject to the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro. Finally, a payee may
also refuse a payment in digital euro if the refusal is made in good faith and if the
payee justifies the refusal on legitimate and temporary grounds, proportionate to
concrete circumstances beyond its control, leading to an impossibility to accept
payments in digital euro at the relevant time of the transaction, such as a power outage
in the case of online digital euro payment transactions, or a defective device in the
case of offline or online digital euro payment transactions.
(19)
In order to ensure that additional exceptions to the mandatory acceptance of the digital
euro may be introduced at a later stage if they are required, for example due to
technical specificities that may appear in the future, the power to adopt acts in
accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the introduction of additional
exceptions of a monetary law nature to the obligation to accept digital euro payment
transactions, which would apply in a harmonised way across the euro area, taking into
account any proposals from Member States to this end. The Commission may only
adopt such exceptions if they are necessary, justified on grounds of general interest,
proportionate, and preserve the effectiveness of the legal tender status of the digital
euro. The power of the Commission to adopt delegated acts for the introduction of
additional exceptions to the obligation to accept digital euro payment transactions
should be without prejudice to the possibility for Member States, pursuant to their own
powers in areas of shared competence, to adopt national legislation introducing
exceptions to the mandatory acceptance deriving from the legal tender status in
accordance with the conditions laid down by the Court of Justice of the European
Union in its judgment in Joined Cases C-422/19 and C-423/19.
(20)
In order to ensure that people and businesses benefit from a wide acceptance network
and are able to effectively use the digital euro in their day-to-day payments, payees
who are subject to the mandatory acceptance of payments in digital euro should not
unilaterally exclude payments in digital euro through contractual terms that have not
been individually negotiated or commercial practices.
(21)
The main objective of the establishment of the digital euro is its use as a form of the
single currency with legal tender in the euro area. For this purpose and in line with the
Agreement on the European Economic Area, digital euro users residing or established
in the euro area, including consumers with no fixed address, asylum seekers and
consumers who are not granted a residence permit but whose expulsion is impossible
for legal or factual reasons, may be provided digital euro payment services by PSPs
established in the European Economic Area. Natural and legal persons who were
already receiving digital euro payment services, because they opened a digital euro
payment account at the time they resided or were established in a Member State whose
currency is the euro, but no longer reside or are established in such Member State,
may still receive digital euro payment services by payment service providers
established in the European Economic Area, in line with the Agreement on the
European Economic Area, subject to possible time limitations in relation to the status
of residence or establishment of these persons that the European Central Bank may
define.
(22)
In accordance with Directive 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and the Council,
the notion of ‘funds’ means banknotes and coins, scriptural money or electronic
money. As a new form of central bank money with legal tender, the digital euro should
be considered as funds under Directive 2015/2366. It should be ensured that payment
service providers distributing the digital euro should be subject to the requirements
laid down in this Directive as transposed by Member States and supervised for this
purpose by the competent authorities referred to in this Directive as well. When
issuing the digital euro, the European Central Bank and national central banks of the
Member States whose currency is the euro, as part of the Eurosystem, would be acting
in their capacity as monetary authority and should therefore not subject to Directive
2015/2366 in accordance with Article 1(e) of that Directive.
(23)
Digital euro payment accounts are a category of payment accounts denominated in
euro through which digital euro users are able to carry out inter alia the following
transactions: place funds, withdraw cash and execute and receive payment transactions
to and from third parties, irrespective of the technology used and the structure of the
ledger or of the data (e.g. whether digital euros are recorded as holding balances or