CJEU ruling in Tukowiecka (C-70/25) on refunding unauthorised payments
A Court of Justice judgment in Case C-70/25, arising from a consumer phished while selling an item on an online marketplace, bears on how quickly payment service providers must return funds for unauthorised transactions.
The DLA Piper alert analyses a Court of Justice judgment in Case C-70/25, Tukowiecka, arising from a consumer who was phished after listing goods for sale on an online marketplace. The reference concerns the timing of a payment service provider's duty to return funds after an unauthorised payment transaction, and touches two recurring lines: whether a consumer may bear the loss where a payment was induced by deception rather than a technically defective transaction, and whether short refund deadlines sit comfortably with the Union payment services framework and the staged refund obligations for unauthorised instant payments.
Why it matters: the outcome sets the outer limit on how long a bank or other provider can sit on a consumer's money after a scam, which feeds directly into retail banking liability allocation, marketplace and platform payment arrangements, and fraud reimbursement practice.
What to watch: the operative paragraphs as reported by the Court, the referring court's disposition, and how providers align refund workflows and customer communications with incoming instant-payments refund deadlines. The precise holding, judgment date, and the Member State of the referring court are not stated in the material available here, so treat those points as unconfirmed pending the Court's own text.