Is sending your credit card information a payment consent?

To book a room in a hotel abroad, a business communicated by telephone to the establishment the number and the cryptogram of its bank card. The hotelier charged the full amount. The reservation could not then be honored but the latter refused to proceed with its refund.

Did the hotelier have the right to debit the money as soon as the reservation was made?

Public Service replies:

Following the hotel's refusal to reimburse the amount, the business filed a request for reimbursement against his bank before a court. She thought she had provided her card number and cryptogram for booking purposes, not payment, and she blamed the bank for making an unauthorized remote payment.

The court rejects his request. It considers that the fact that the business spontaneously transmitted its credit card information to the hotelier is not disputable, and that there was no unauthorized operation.

The business appealed to the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation overturns and annuls the judgment of the judicial tribunal.

According to the Monetary and Financial Code, such a payment transaction ‘ shall be authorized if the payer has given his consent to its execution ». In that case, however, the business issued ‘a payment order’ through the beneficiary ”, in this case, the hotelier.

Thus, the Court considers that ‘in the absence of such consent, given in the form agreed between the payer and the bank [for example through the use of personalized security data], the transaction is deemed to be unauthorized’.

The Court considers that the court did not give a legal basis for its decision. He should have looked proof of immediate consent business to his bank.