Access to Payment Systems

(1) The operator of a payment system may not, directly or indirectly, 1. hinder payment service providers, payment service users and comparable payment systems, through restrictive conditions or other disproportionate means, in obtaining access to the payment system; 2. treat them differently, without objectively justified grounds, in respect of their rights and obligations as participants of the payment system; 3. impose restrictions on the basis of the institutional status of the payment service provider. The operator of a payment system may set objective conditions for participation in a payment system, insofar as these are necessary to protect effectively the financial and operational stability of the payment system and to prevent the risks associated with participation in a payment system. These risks include in particular operational risk, settlement risk and business risk. Every payment service provider and every other payment system must, before joining and during its participation in a payment system, demonstrate on request to the operator and to the other participants of the payment system that its own arrangements meet the objective conditions within the meaning of the second sentence. On refusing an application for access to the system or excluding a participant, the operator must give a full statement of the reasons for the measure when notifying it.
(2) A person who, as the operator of a payment system, breaches the provisions of subsection (1) is required to remedy the breach as against the person affected and, where there is a risk of repetition, to cease and desist. A person who commits the breach wilfully or negligently is liable to the person affected for the resulting damage; the ordinary courts have jurisdiction over such claims.
(3) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to payment systems composed exclusively of payment service providers belonging to a single group of undertakings. Where a participant of a system within the meaning of section 1(16) of the Banking Act grants a licensed or registered payment service provider that is not a participant of the system the right to submit credit transfer orders through it via the system, it must, on request, grant other licensed or registered payment service providers the same possibility in an objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory manner; subsection (1), fourth sentence, and subsection (2) apply correspondingly to those participants.
(4) The tasks and competences of the competition authorities under the Act against Restraints of Competition remain unaffected.