Summary

The electronic payment instrument is a payment instrument that enables its owner to command his/her financial rights using electronic means. The use of electronic payment instruments is extremely simple: payments in most cases require only the payment instrument itself and the personal identification code for its activation. On the basis of the payment instrument and the personal identification code, the issuer identifies the owner as the person carrying out the transaction. Any person who has taken control of the payment instrument and the tool enabling its use can carry out the transaction, if he/she lets the issuer recognise the person carrying out the transaction as the owner. There are many possibilities for obtaining control over the payment instrument or finding out the identification code, most of which the owner can avoid by careful behaviour regarding the payment instrument and the tools. Careful behaviour with a non-physical payment instrument as a service is more complicated, and it can be presumed that many consumers do not have sufficient knowledge regarding this issue. The owner can also reduce the risk by careful behaviour in communication with the issuer, by informing the issuer immediately if the payment instrument or tool has been obtained by a third person.

The article examines the legal relationships which exist between the owner and the issuer if a third person has carried out a transaction with the owner’s electronic payment instrument without the owner’s knowledge.