New rules for online payments

On 1 July 2020, new regulations in the Swedish payment service laws come into effect. In short, the changes:

• Aim to protect consumers from gathering unwanted debt and credit when shopping online.
• Prevent credit alternatives from being presented first or as preselected options among online payment methods when a debit payment alternative is available. 
• Apply to online stores with sales in Sweden, including those from other countries that sell to the Swedish market.

What you need to do

If you are using our checkout, you do not need to do anything. We will make the necessary changes for you and make sure that the payment methods are presented to your customers in the right order. If you are using a different solution, you will need to check the presentation of payment methods and make any necessary changes before 1 July. Our recommendation is that you:

• Present a debit payment method (if one is available) as the first and preselected option (if you are using preselection) in the list of payment methods at your online store. 
• Separate debit and credit cards if card payment is presented as the first or preselected option.
• Update your web shop with the solution that best suits it. 

As a payment service provider, we have an overall responsibility that the regulations are followed. Due to us not always having access to your payment methods, it is up to you to make the necessary updates on time to ensure that regulation demands are met. 

As the regulations to be implemented are new, you should stay up to date with current information. We will be posting new information on this web site. 

The difference between debit and credit 

The purpose of the new regulations is to reduce the amount of unwanted credit purchases by online shoppers. All payment methods that include some form of delayed payment are considered credit. In some cases, a payment method needs to be divided into separate debit and credit options since it can be a combination of both, as for card payments. We recommend that you, besides presenting a debit option as the first or preselected alternative, clearly inform your customers about the debit and credit options available to them in your online store. That way, your customers will have the opportunity to choose the payment method that best suits them. 
Some examples of debit and credit payments are: 

Debit 

• Swish 
• Direct bank transfer 

Credit

• Invoice
• Credit account (financing) 

A combination of debit and credit

Card payment (If you want card payment to be presented as the first option, you can only have debit cards as the first or preselected alternative. This means that you have to divide card payments into two separate options – debit cards and credit cards.) 

Updated general terms and conditions for acquiring  

Due to the new regulations, we have updated our general terms and conditions for card acquiring on 1 June 2020. 

You can find our updated terms and conditions for card acquiring here (in Swedish)

Do you have questions?

Are you already a customer and have questions about the changes to our checkout or updated terms and conditions? Call us on +46 498-20 29 55 or send an e-mail to paymentservicesact@swedbankpay.com and we will assist you.