The Federation of Consumers and Users (CECU) and the Association of Financial Users (Asufin), in coordination with the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), have warned that the digital euro could imply weaker consumer protection than that of traditional payment cards if the current proposals are not corrected in the key phase of European negotiation.
With this objective, both entities have sent a joint letter to the First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo; to the Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy; and to the Governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, where they convey their concerns.
The organizations criticize that the text under discussion in the Council maintains the rules of liability currently in force for ordinary transfers under the Payment Services Directive (PSD2). In their view, this would leave users unprotected against fraud, scams in online purchases, defective products, or undelivered orders, as there is no clear mechanism for resolving commercial disputes and refunding money against third parties.
According to data from the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB), consumers now bear 85% of the total losses resulting from fraud in bank transfers, compared to 38% when using cards. For this reason, if the digital euro is governed by the same framework as transfers, the associations warn that users will end up bearing "the majority of the losses" in digital transactions.
Risks for citizen acceptance and the image of the digital euro
CECU and Asufin insist that the existence of solid refund guarantees will be decisive for citizens to adopt the new public digital currency. They recall that a BEUC survey from 2025 places security and reliability as the most important factor for users in a new payment system, and that more than 80% of participants fear not recovering their money if they do not receive the purchased product or if they suffer a scam.
In this line, consumer organizations warn that the absence of strong protection can cause "reputational damage" to the digital euro project, calling into question "its ability to compete with international payment card systems and, therefore, function as a widely used European sovereign solution for cross-border payments."
For this reason, they demand that the Government of Spain and the Bank of Spain support the position of the European Parliament on Article 27 of the Digital Euro Regulation, which proposes a reimbursement scheme similar to that of major international card networks, covering both fraud and commercial disputes with third parties.