The ODDA Receives a Response from Lord Hansen Regarding Tech Firms’ Liability for Reimbursing Victims of Fraud

In October last year, UK Finance called on the UK Government to make tech firms liable for reimbursing victims of fraud by extending the Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud Reimbursement Scheme.

The ODDA strongly opposes this proposal, which would have a significant impact on our sector. We were therefore pleased to see the Government reject an amendment to Clause 117 of the Crime and Policing Bill (UK) that would have required technology and telecommunications companies to share the cost of reimbursing APP fraud victims.

Despite support in the House, the Government’s representative, Lord Katz, said the upcoming Fraud Strategy will instead explore ways to make it harder for criminals to exploit networks for fraud, warning the amendment could undermine the UK’s intermediary liability regime and harm the digital economy.

For now, the proposal is off the table. However, as fraud losses continue to rise, the ODDA believes pressure to make tech firms liable will grow. We therefore wrote to the Fraud Minister, Lord Hanson, supporting the Government’s position and outlining why extending the Regulations would be unworkable, and will continue engaging with officials and stakeholders on the issue. We have now received this response and it remains to be seen how this will unfold. It’s as expected in that the focus for the Government is the long-awaited fraud strategy, but that they will also consider additional action if the measures in the strategy do not achieve their desired outcomes. We continue to monitor the situation.