Buy now, pay later: the consumer-credit rules that start on 20 November 2026

The date, and where it comes from

The instrument is Directive (EU) 2023/2225 of 18 October 2023, published as OJ L, 2023/2225, 30.10.2023. It repeals the 2008 consumer-credit directive (Directive 2008/48/EC) and is the reason every member state is rewriting its consumer-credit law at the same time.

The date is in Article 48(1): member states had to adopt and publish their transposing measures by 20 November 2025 and to apply them from 20 November 2026. That is a Union date, not a national one — so a shop in Austria, Germany or the Netherlands meets the same day, however each government wrapped it. Austria published its act in June 2026, after the transposition deadline, and it takes effect on the application date itself.

What it is

A directive, so what you can be fined for is the national law. In Austria that law is the Verbraucherkreditrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2026 (VerKRÄG 2026), BGBl. I Nr. 36/2026.

Applies from

20 November 2026 (Art. 48(1); Austrian VKrG 2026 § 45(1)).

Which contracts

In Austria, only credit agreements concluded or granted after 19 November 2026 (§ 45(2)). The old act expires at the end of 19 November 2026 and keeps applying to everything agreed before that (Article 1 of the amending act). A handful of provisions — the interest-change, notice and overdraft rules in §§ 24, 27, 28, 30, 33–35 and § 37 — also apply to open-ended agreements that are still running on 20 November 2026 (§ 45(3)).

Who the creditor is

The entrepreneur who grants or promises to grant the credit (§ 2(1)). That may be you, if you let customers pay later yourself — or the payment provider, if it grants the credit behind your checkout.

Invoice purchase and buy-now-pay-later are inside now

The old directive had a hole at the bottom. It did not apply to credit agreements below €200, which is exactly where short-term instalments and pay-later offers live. The new directive's recital 15 says so in terms: the agreements that stayed outside the old scope can be detrimental to consumers, "including short-term high-cost credit agreements whose amount is typically lower than the minimum threshold of EUR 200 set out in that Directive", and the new directive should cover some of them. Recital 16 deals with the other half: buy-now-pay-later schemes, where the creditor grants credit for the exclusive purpose of buying goods or services from one supplier, "are often granted free of interest and without any other charges, and should therefore be included in the scope".

In Austria the reach is set by § 6 (the credit-contract rules and their exclusions) and extended by § 39(1): the rules of the credit chapter apply to contracts by which an entrepreneur grants a consumer a deferred payment or other financing help. § 40 then adds what is specific to a deferral — the cash price and any deposit have to appear in the advertising and in the contract documents.

€200 still exists in the text, but not as a threshold you can hide under. It appears in the relief lines for advertising (the duration and total-amount items in § 8(2), and the tilgungsträger statement in § 20(4)), never as a reason for an agreement to fall outside the act.

The carve-out ordinary invoice purchase uses

§ 39(2) Z 3, mirroring Art. 2(2)(h) of the directive. Where a supplier of goods or services gives the consumer time to pay without a third party offering credit, the credit rules do not apply if the price is to be paid free of interest and without other charges (only limited late-payment costs) and payment is to be made in full within 50 days of delivery.

And the shorter line for big distance sellers

The same paragraph adds a condition where the supplier is not a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise under Recommendation 2003/361/EC and offers information-society services used for distance contracts with consumers: the carve-out then needs no third party acquiring the payment claim and payment in full within 14 days of delivery. This is the provision that shapes what an online shop can offer as its own invoice purchase.

Interest-free is not a way out

The directive lets member states switch off a small set of information items for credit that is interest-free and charge-free (Art. 2(8)). Austria uses that option only for § 8(2) Z 4 and 5 of the advertising rules and a few points of the pre-contractual and contract forms (§ 10(5), § 11(4), § 20(4)). The ban on unsolicited credit, the advertising warning, the pre-contractual information and the creditworthiness check are not exempted.

Whose money is being lent matters

If a payment provider advances or buys the claim, or offers the credit itself, it is the creditor and the carve-out in § 39(2) Z 3 — which requires that no third party offers the credit — does not apply to the arrangement.

The four duties at the checkout

None of this is new law invented in Vienna: each duty has an article in the directive and a paragraph in the Austrian act. They are written for the creditor — so the first question at your checkout is whose credit it is.

1. Information, free of charge, before the consumer is bound

Information must be given free of charge whatever the medium (§ 4), and the pre-contractual information must arrive in good time before the consumer is bound by the agreement or the offer, including over distance channels (§ 10). The contract itself must carry the itemised content in § 20(2) — including the withdrawal right and the conditions for exercising it. Where the pre-contractual pack arrives less than one day before the consumer is bound, the creditor must send a reminder about the right of withdrawal (§ 10(7)).

2. The warning that borrowing costs money

Advertising for credit agreements must carry a clear and prominent warning that taking credit costs money, using the wording "Achtung! Kreditaufnahme kostet Geld" or an equivalent (§ 8(1), from Art. 8(1) of the directive). Where the advertising names rates or other cost figures, a representative example with figures is required too (§ 8(2)).

3. The creditworthiness check

Before concluding the agreement the creditor must carry out a thorough assessment of the consumer's creditworthiness, in the consumer's interest, to prevent irresponsible lending and over-indebtedness (§ 17(1), from Art. 18(1)). It rests on relevant and accurate information on income and expenses and other financial circumstances — with no special categories of data and, in terms, social networks are not an external source. The creditor must document it and keep procedures for it (§ 17(4)).

4. The ban, when the check fails

The creditor may provide the credit only if the assessment shows that the consumer is likely to meet the obligations under the agreement (§ 17(6), from Art. 18(6)). A refusal must be communicated without delay, and where the decision rested on automated processing the consumer must be told, given the right to human intervention and told how to contest it (§ 17(5) and (8)).

Not invalid — what actually happens

If you have read that a credit contract is invalid when the required information is missing, do not plan around it. We went looking for that rule in the directive and in the Austrian act and could not find it, and the Austrian act says the opposite in its opening words.

§ 20(1) begins: "Unbeschadet der Wirksamkeit des Rechtsgeschäfts sind Kreditverträge … auf Papier oder auf einem anderen dauerhaften Datenträger zu erstellen" — without prejudice to the validity of the transaction. The consequences of a defective contract are the specific ones listed in § 20(5), and they are monetary rather than existential for the agreement:

No rate stated

If the contract states neither the interest rate, the annual percentage rate of charge, nor the total amount payable, the statutory rate under § 1000(1) ABGB counts as agreed, unless a lower rate was agreed (§ 20(5) Z 1).

APR understated

A stated APR that is too low pulls the effective rate down to what the statement implies, taking the rest of the contract into account (§ 20(5) Z 2).

Change conditions missing

If the contract is silent on the conditions under which the rate or other charges can change, the creditor cannot make those changes to the consumer's detriment (§ 20(5) Z 3).

Right of early repayment missing

No entry on the right to repay early, or on compensation, means the creditor can claim no compensation (§ 20(5) Z 4).

And the clock on withdrawal stops running

If the consumer never received the contractual terms and information under § 20, the withdrawal period ends at the latest 12 months and 14 days after the agreement was concluded — but that ceiling does not apply where the consumer was not properly instructed about the withdrawal right at all (§ 25(2)). The ordinary withdrawal period is 14 days (§ 25(1)).

What is invalid

Terms that deviate from the act to the consumer's detriment (§ 3). That is about the clause, not about the whole agreement falling away.

What Amazon's change shows

The most visible consequence in Austria so far is not a fine. It is a payment method disappearing. According to the Austrian reporting at the start of October, Amazon is discontinuing the monthly invoice (Monatsabrechnung) in Austria and moving the customers who used it to the classic purchase on invoice:

• Each order gets its own invoice, and subscriptions are invoiced separately.
• There are 14 days to pay each one.
• Customers who order several times in a short window will hold several invoices with different due dates.
• Invoice purchase itself is not disappearing — what goes is the pooling of a month's orders into one statement.

The reason given is the new rules: adapting the monthly invoice to them would have required extensive changes, so Amazon went the other way. The company's own framing is that the classic route allows "simpler and more transparent" payment.

For a small seller the transferable lesson is narrower and more useful: the deferral period you offer is a legal parameter now, not just a courtesy to the buyer. If you sell through Amazon, your customers' payment terms have just changed and you did nothing.

What Klarna says

Klarna is the provider most Austrian coverage names, and its public position is that it has already done the work. The company says it implemented many of the requirements — credit checks among them, and transparency about costs and conditions — long before the rules were published: "Klarna hat viele der Anforderungen bereits lange vor Veröffentlichung der Regeln proaktiv umgesetzt."

On the product side, Klarna states that its "In 30 Tagen zahlen" option has not been abolished because of the new rules, and that the temporary unavailability customers saw at some merchants was an internal error, since fixed. That is the provider's own account; we have no authority decision either way.

Where the duties sit in that arrangement

If the provider grants the credit, the provider is the creditor (§ 2(1)): the pre-contractual information and the creditworthiness check are its duties, not yours. A merchant that only switches the option on is also not automatically a credit intermediary — the definition in § 2(12) excludes a person who merely brings a consumer into contact with a creditor.

What stays with you

The § 39(2) Z 3 carve-out needs that no third party offers the credit, so a "pay in 30 days" route run by a provider is inside the rules by construction. Your checkout has to deliver the request and the express consent the § 7 ban requires, and the extra friction — identity checks, declined checkouts — lands on your conversion rate.

Checklist for a one-person shop

Written for the moment you pick which payment methods your checkout offers. Nothing here is exotic; the point is that the choice is no longer only commercial.

What we could not establish

We would rather leave a gap visible than fill it with something plausible.

Whether a checkout tile counts as advertising

§ 8 says what advertising for credit agreements must contain, and § 44(1) Z 3 fines advertising that lacks it, but neither text says where the line runs between a payment-option listing and advertising for a credit agreement. We found no authority applying it to a checkout.

Whether a shop offering a provider's option is a credit intermediary

The definition in § 2(12) excludes someone who merely brings a consumer into contact with a creditor, which reads like a checkout button. We found no decision or guidance confirming that reading.

What the reform costs a mid-sized Austrian retailer

A figure is in circulation for Otto Österreich in the range of €500,000 to €1 million. We could not open a source for it, so we do not print it as a number. What we can attribute is the trade association's line that the protection has a price and that smaller retailers pay it.

A cap on interest rates

We found none in the directive and none in the Austrian act. That is a reading of two texts, not an official statement, and it is not advice about what you may charge.

Sources

Primary law first, then the Austrian reporting we could open. Every Austrian paragraph number above is from the amending act as published — we read it, not a summary of it. Where a claim rests only on reporting, we have said so in the text.

1. Directive (EU) 2023/2225 — EUR-Lex The authoritative text, adopted 18 October 2023, OJ L, 2023/2225, 30.10.2023. Source for Article 48(1) (transposition by 20 November 2025, application from 20 November 2026), Article 2(2)(h) (the 50-day deferral carve-out and the 14-day condition for non-SME distance sellers), Article 2(8) (the member-state relief for interest-free and small credit), Article 8(1) (the advertising warning), Article 17 (ban on unsolicited credit) and Article 18(6) (credit may be provided only if the assessment is positive), plus recitals 15 and 16 on the €200 threshold and buy-now-pay-later. Read in full for this page
2. Verbraucherkreditrechts-Änderungsgesetz 2026, BGBl. I Nr. 36/2026 — RIS Official, Austria. The authenticated Bundesgesetzblatt text of the amending act: Article 1 repealing the VKrG (BGBl. I Nr. 28/2010) with effect from the end of 19 November 2026, and Article 2 containing the new Verbraucherkreditgesetz 2026. Source for § 2 (definitions), § 3, § 4, § 7, § 8(1) (the "Achtung! Kreditaufnahme kostet Geld" wording), § 10, § 17, § 20 (including "Unbeschadet der Wirksamkeit des Rechtsgeschäfts" and the consequences in § 20(5)), § 25(1) and (2), § 39 (scope for deferred payment, the exclusions, and the relief in § 39(3)), § 40, § 44 (fines up to €10,000 and publication) and § 45 (entry into force and transition). Read in full for this page
3. 5min.at — Klarna und Amazon schaffen Zahlungsart ab (5 October 2026) Secondary, Austria. Source for Amazon switching affected Austrian customers to the classic purchase on invoice with a separate invoice per order and per subscription and 14 days to pay, for the invoice purchase itself remaining, for the new rules applying in Austria from 20 November 2026 and smaller financings and buy-now-pay-later being more tightly regulated, for Amazon's stated reason that the changes would have made the shopping experience more complicated, and for Klarna saying that "In 30 Tagen zahlen" was not abolished and that the temporary unavailability at some merchants was an internal error since fixed
4. KOSMO — Amazon schafft beliebte Zahlungsart ab (5 October 2026) Secondary, Austria. Source for Amazon's quoted statement that it chose the classic purchase on invoice because it allows "simpler and more transparent" payment, for the scope of the new rules reaching buy-now-pay-later providers such as Klarna, for the extended information duties including the withdrawal right, for the stricter creditworthiness check and the lending ban when the check fails, and for the quotations from Maximilian Eder (Verein für Konsumenteninformation), Christian Prantner (Arbeiterkammer) on the required "Achtung, Kreditaufnahme kostet Geld" message, and Harald Gutschi (Otto Austria Group, vice-president of the Handelsverband) on smaller retailers struggling with the checks and turning to other payment methods
5. KOSMO — Neue Kreditregeln: Was sich für Käufer ab November ändert (21 September 2026) Secondary, Austria (Kleine Zeitung group). Source for the Austrian act being named the Verbraucherkreditgesetz 2026, for small credits under €200, interest-free financing and buy-now-pay-later falling under the new rules, for the 14-day and 50-day exceptions for deferred payment offered directly by the merchant, for the transposing of Directive (EU) 2023/2225, and for the withdrawal period ending 12 months and 14 days after conclusion where the contractual terms or information were not received, with no ceiling where the consumer was not properly instructed about the withdrawal right
6. Heute.at — Schärfere Regeln bei Zahlung im Online-Handel (22 September 2026) Secondary, Austria. Source for the Austrian act being a late transposition of Directive (EU) 2023/2225, for instalment payment, zero-percent offers and buy-now-pay-later being covered, for credit only being providable where the check shows repayment is likely and a negative check resulting in a lending ban, for social-media data and sensitive data being out of the creditworthiness check, and for the trade association's assessment that large retailers can manage the change while smaller businesses may find it harder

Tell us what we got wrong

Two gaps above are worth a source on their own: an authority or a court applying § 8 to a checkout payment-option tile, and any official statement on what this reform costs a retailer that is neither huge nor tiny. A source we can open beats ten pages of commentary, and we will correct this page in public if it turns out we have something wrong.