Does my marketplace need payment services authorisation?

The FCA names online marketplaces, businesses bringing sellers and customers together, and booking services as models that may be affected by the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs). Its test starts with the money. If your business receives customer money before passing it on to a seller, you may be providing a payment service.

That includes money received into an account in your name, whether a bank account, an e-money account or an account with your merchant acquirer. The FCA gives two examples of payment services this might be: money remittance, or operating a payment account for customers. It applies when the services are provided as a regular occupation or business activity, even as part of a package with other services.

That is the text of the exclusion in Schedule 1, Part 2 of the PSRs. The FCA's guidance in PERG 15 adds two points. First, a platform acts for both payer and payee where it lets the payer transfer funds into an account it controls, that transfer does not settle the payer's debt to the payee, and the platform then pays corresponding amounts to the payee.

Second, on authority to conclude a sale, the FCA's view is that the agent must be able to affect its principal's legal relations with third parties and bind the payer or payee to a purchase or sale. The FCA says this is not met simply by providing the technical means by which a payer places or a payee accepts an order.

A single blanket legal conclusion may fail where different checkout journeys send money through different entities. Assess each journey separately, and revisit the answer when you change payment provider or launch in a new market.

Where the platform will provide payment services as a regular occupation or business activity and no exclusion or exemption applies, the FCA says it will need to be authorised or registered. Providing payment services without the right status is an offence, so the decision belongs before launch.

On those facts the commercial agent argument needs serious scrutiny. Money moves into an account the platform controls, the payer's debt is not settled by that payment, and the platform then pays corresponding amounts to the promoter. That is the pattern the FCA gives as acting for both sides. The contract does not even give authority to negotiate or conclude sales. Tindale may be providing payment services.

Gather these before anyone writes an opinion. They show what the platform does, which is what the FCA's questions turn on. The FCA expects firms in doubt to seek independent legal or compliance advice.

Read them side by side. A common problem is not one bad document but two good ones that disagree: the terms describe an agent, while the account structure describes a platform that holds customers' money.

A marketplace can create a payment services issue while believing it is only collecting sales proceeds. Agree the payment architecture and the platform's legal capacity before launch, and record the reasoning.