Bitcoin and Mobile Payments: Constructing a European Union Framework

This book provides a critical analysis of The European Union’s regulatory framework for mobile payments and bitcoin. Chapters discuss the creation of the EU single market for e-payments and combine legal analysis with comparative case studies in their exploration of the regulatory challenges surrounding e-payments. The contributing authors analyse the key economic and legal issues of the development of bitcoin and mobile payments within the EU framework through a comparative lens. They cover topics ranging from user data and funds protection and the stability of the payment system to the competitiveness of the EU market.  Providing a comprehensive and methodological guide to the bitcoin and mobile payments in Europe, this book will prove an illuminating and informative read for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in the impact of innovation on payment systems.

Table of Contents

Part I: Institutional Strategies and Economic Background
Chapter 1: The Regulatory Machine: An Institutional Approach to Innovative Payments in Europe
Chapter 2: Economic Issues on M-Payments and Bitcoin

Part II: The Framework: A European and Comparative Outline
Chapter 3: Bit by Bit: Assessing the Legal Nature of Virtual Currencies
Chapter 4: Mobilizing Payments Within the European Union Framework: A Legal Analysis
Chapter 5: A Fuzzy Set in the Legal Domain: Bitcoins According to US Legal Formants
Chapter 6: M-Payments: How Much Regulation Is Appropriate? Learning from the Global Experience

Part III: The Challenges
Chapter 7: Security Issues of New Innovative Payments and Their Regulatory Challenges
Chapter 8: EU Data Protection and Future Payment Services
Chapter 9: The Classification of Virtual Currencies and Mobile Payments in Terms of the Old and New European Anti-­Money Laundering Frameworks
Chapter 10: Virtual Currencies, M-Payments and VAT: Ready for the Future?
Chapter 11: Mobile Payments and Merger Regulation: A Case Law Analysis

Part IV: Conclusions
Chapter 12: Mobile Payments and Bitcoin: Concluding Reflections on the Digital Upheaval in Payments