STARTPAGE

PEOPLE
MARIE CURIE ACTIONS

Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)
Call: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF

PART B

“LMPLHT”

B1 Scientific and technological quality 2
B2 Training 11
B3 Researcher 12
B4 Implementation 20
B5 Impact 23

B1 Scientific and technological quality

B1 – 1 Scientific and technological Quality, including any interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspects of the proposal

Law of modern payment means in the light of the history of the concept of legal tender

Paper and metal monies have drawbacks that have made alternative payment systems always more valuable for the exchange of money in payment. Modern payment systems emerged during the nineteen-sixties when American banks build nationwide schemes to distribute payment cards[1] in order to overcome geographical and legal impediments in local banking activities. The principles of their functioning do not differ much from older payment methods such as cheques: they rely on a four party scheme, with a payer, a payee, the payer’s and the beneficiary’s banks. The sole novelty was that these systems were (and still are) organised though a privately owned network.

The original project started in 2003 with a “doctorat en droit” (a French Phd), analysing modern payment systems from a global antitrust law perspective. My assumption was that if the “exchange of money” qualified for a universal trade under the name of “payment services[2]” and that antitrust law was the paradigm of market regulation, then payments systems should see their activity legally regulated by antitrust on the same basis around the world. Eased by the narrow aspect of the subject matter, I was able to gather and study all European antitrust case law on payment systems and then conduct an extensive antitrust comparative law analysis with decisions from competition authorities, State departments and tribunals chosen from selected countries.

This legal analysis showed that the antitrust