The aim of this paper is to determine whether the legal
discourse on payment rules is shifting from a state of fragmentation to one
resting on a unified and autonomous legal footing, thus attempting to verify
whether we are witnessing the emergence of a European retail payment law. By
examining how the payments package would redefine the regulatory space of EU
retail payment law governance, the paper reviews how current trends in the
credit market (recognition of the social dimension of the credit market) and
consumer law (the fragmentation of the concept of the consumer and the
so-called vulnerability turn) affect the proposed new regulation.
Unsurprisingly, the result of regulating the intersubjective relationships
between users and payment services providers (PSP) is an expansion of the area
that private law governs, both in terms of widening the area of PSP
responsibility and demanding a degree of responsibilisation from the user. The
enforcement side is also investigated, from the perspective of regulatory
design and its consequences for the need for consistency of application and
predictability of decisions.