Consumer protection of digital financial services in Russia and abroad

Purpose: The purpose of the chapter to study the features of the legal regulation of consumer protection of digital banking in the European Union, USA, China and Russia. In 2019, the Internet user audience in Russia amounted to 90 million people (75.4% of the country’s adult population). More than 50% of the European population (250 million people) and 40% of the Chinese population (approximately 560 million people) use digital banking in everyday life. Therefore, the protection of the rights of consumers of digital financial services are facing governments of all countries of the world. Design/methodology/approach: In this chapter, the authors studied and analyzed the provisions of legislation, judicial practice, the doctrines of the European Union, the USA, China, and the Russian Federation. Findings: It is shown that the legal regulation of consumer protection of digital financial services should not be too strict and excessive. Excessive regulation causes digital financial service providers to travel to other countries where regulation is milder or absent altogether, which happened in the United States in 2018. The government had to cancel some very tough provisions of Dodd-Frank 2010. On the other hand, the comparatively lenient regulation of the distribution of digital banking services, for example in China, has led to the emergence of a number of fraudulent schemes in the field of Internet banking. Under pressure from the indignant public, the Chinese government had to take urgent measures to rectify the situation Originality/value: The novelty lies in the analysis of a number of regulatory acts, including: acts of the European Union (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on EU-wide payment services (PSD2)); the USA (Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010); Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (2018) (EGRRCPA)); China (General Rules of the Civil Law of China; Law of Consumer Rights and Interests; Cybersecurity Law 2017) and the Russian Federation (Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights” of 07.02.1992 (as amended on March 18, 2019)). © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.