BNPL Becomes Credit on 20 November
From 20 November 2026, 'pay in 3' instalments count as consumer credit under EU and French rules. What Monaco online stores must change before the date.
On 20 November 2026, eleven days from now, the EU's second Consumer Credit Directive (CCD2, Directive 2023/2225) starts applying across member states, and France's transposition takes effect the same day. Short-term "pay in 3" or "pay in 4" instalment plans, including the fee-free ones, become regulated consumer credit.
Monaco is not an EU member state, and the directive does not apply to the Principality directly. But if your Monaco store offers split payments through a French or EU-regulated provider, or sells to shoppers in France and the EU, your checkout and your marketing change anyway. This is the pre-deadline checklist we are running with our own e-commerce clients this week.
What actually changes on 20 November
Until now, instalment plans repaid within three months with no or negligible fees sat outside consumer credit law. That exemption disappears. The €200 lower threshold goes too, so even a €60 cart split in three is in scope, and the rules cover credit up to €100,000.
In France the directive was transposed by the ordinance of 3 September 2025 (n° 2025-880), with implementing texts in February and August 2026. Short fee-free credit gets a lighter regime than a car loan, but the core duties remain: a clear warning on advertising, a pre-contractual information sheet, a creditworthiness assessment by the lender, express customer consent, and a 14-day withdrawal right.
Two timing points matter. Credit contracts concluded before 20 November stay under the old rules until they end. Advertising gets no such grace period: a non-compliant badge or banner is non-compliant from the first day.
Why a Monaco merchant is affected anyway
Three routes bring these rules to your store even though Monaco sits outside the EU.
First, the providers. Alma, Klarna, Scalapay, Floa, PayPal and Oney operate under French or EU licences. They will apply the new flows, disclosures and eligibility checks to every merchant they serve, Monaco included. Your checkout changes because theirs does.
Second, your customers. When a consumer located in France or elsewhere in the EU buys from you, the consumer-protection rules of their country can come into play, regardless of where your company is registered.
Third, your partner contract. Provider terms usually include recourse against the merchant for non-compliant marketing or checkout implementation. If your "3x sans frais" badge breaks the new advertising rules, the exposure may land on you.
Monaco has its own legal framework for domestic sales, and we are not lawyers. For instalments offered to customers in the Principality, and for anything you finance yourself, get a qualified opinion rather than assuming Monaco is either fully in or fully out.
Your product pages and ads are now credit advertising
This is the part most merchants underestimate. Under the French rules, a "pay later" badge on a product page counts as credit advertising. From 20 November, credit advertising must be clear, fair and not misleading, and must carry a new standard warning: "Attention ! Un crédit coûte de l'argent et doit être remboursé." The previous wording, "Un crédit vous engage et doit être remboursé", is replaced. In written adverts the warning has to be more prominent than the other financing information.
Certain claims are banned outright: suggesting that credit is easy to obtain, that it improves the customer's budget, or creating false expectations about cost. "Sans frais" has to be literally true. If the instalment price is higher than the cash price, say so.
Walk through every place split payment is mentioned: product-page badges, cart messaging, Black Friday and Christmas email campaigns, Google Shopping and Meta ads, Instagram captions, and your FR, EN and IT translations. Ask each provider for their updated compliant wording in every language you sell in, and use it verbatim.
Checkout: consent, no pre-selection, information
The customer must actively choose credit. Pre-ticked boxes are prohibited, BNPL cannot be the pre-selected default payment method, and add-ons such as payment insurance cannot be pre-ticked either. A contract has to state plainly that the price is being paid with credit.
The pre-contractual information sheet is usually the provider's responsibility, but it is your checkout that displays it, so the integration has to render it correctly on mobile. The creditworthiness check is the lender's job, which means slightly more friction and some declines. Make sure a card or bank-transfer option is one tap away when a shopper is refused, or you lose the sale twice.
On Shopify, provider apps update themselves, but theme badges and custom widgets do not. On a custom stack, check which version of the provider SDK you are running. Our e-commerce team handles this review for Shopify stores and bespoke platforms alike, and it is a sensible moment to test the new flow with proper conversion rate optimisation measurement, because friction at checkout is exactly where instalments earn or lose their fee.
If you finance instalments yourself
Some Monaco retailers, galleries and service firms let good clients pay over time without a third party. That stays outside the credit rules only under strict conditions: you grant the deferral yourself, charge no interest and only limited late fees, the full amount is paid within 50 days of delivery, and no financing company buys the receivable. Large companies selling online at a distance get only 14 days.
Beyond those limits you are, legally, a lender, with everything that implies. Subscriptions billed as the service is delivered are not credit. If your payment terms sit anywhere near the line, this is the week to get them reviewed.
A ten-day checklist
- List every mention of split payment across site, ads, emails and social.
- Get written confirmation from each provider of their post-20-November setup and wording, per country you sell into.
- Replace badges, banners and ad copy before the date. There is no grace period for advertising.
- Remove any pre-selection of BNPL or insurance at checkout.
- Test the decline path on mobile and confirm another payment method is immediately available.
- Re-read your partner contract: who provides what, who keeps the proof, and what the recourse clauses say.
- Brief customer service on instalment and withdrawal questions.
- For Monaco-domestic sales and any self-financed deferral, obtain a legal opinion.
Need the checkout, badges and campaigns on your Monaco store reviewed before 20 November? Get in touch and we will go through them with you this week.
Related services
