Consumer retail online electronic payments: Potential liberation technology or source of despair

This dissertation considers the desirability of governmental regulation of consumer retail online electronic payments. The author argues that governmental regulation may be the only solution that will make emergent payment products a viable alternative to existing legacy consumer payment facilities for online transactions. The first part of the dissertation seeks to describe from a comparative perspective, various legal issues that hinder the acceptability of new payment products in the marketplace. The author begins by describing some of the emergent and existing payment products that are currently available on the marketplace. The discussion then turns to examining existing approaches to the regulation of electronic payments in Canada, the United States and the European Community. After canvassing the various paradigms that pertain to the question of regulation vis-a-vis electronic payments, the discussion turns to how the various jurisdictions have chosen to regulate issues pertaining to consumer privacy. Following this, the author describes various laws and regulations pertaining to consumer liability for unauthorized transactions and the various statues adopted by the three jurisdictions described above. The first part concludes with a discussion of possible remedies available to consumers in common law jurisdictions by way of constructive trusts in an effort to show how it may be possible to construe the new emerging products as falling outside of traditional banking and payment legal doctrines and how it may be possible to fashion a remedy for consumer outside of these accepted doctrines.;The second part of the dissertation attempts to situate new payment products against the historical case in favour of governmental regulation of payment instruments. The author compares governmental regulatory initiatives with respect to private banknotes and credit cards and argues that experiences with these products can provide a useful guide in encouraging the consumer acceptance of emerging payment products. The author also discusses the unregulated market for prepaid long distance telephone cards to show how a laissez-faire approach can bring significant risks for consumers. The second part then moves to a discussion by the author arguing against laissez-faire approaches towards electronic payments that have heretofore dominated academic debates and shows shortcomings in the laissez-faire argument with reference to the theories of Friedrich Hayek. The author then concludes with some observations that are meant to guide the future development of regulations in this area.