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The Agentic Commerce Opportunity and its Regulatory Compliance

By February 16, 2026No Comments

๐˜—๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ต โ€” ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜จ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ!

Happy to share my deck from last weekโ€™s Mobey Forum in Munich. Together with Christophe Zehnacker (Mastercard), we discussed what it takes for Agentic Commerce to scale responsibly.

๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜†๐˜€ (views are my own):

๐—”๐˜‚๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป
โ€ข ๐˜Š๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด are SCA-compliant by design (cardholder is in-session and always authenticates each transaction).
โ€ข ๐˜ˆ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด require further regulatory alignment, e.g., by analogy with Merchant Initiated Transactions (cardholder not in-session and the Agent’s mandate is always SCA-authenticated).

๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† (๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ฑ)
โ€ข The cardholder should generally be refunded by the issuer.
โ€ข If the Agent facilitated fraud, the Agent may need to refund the issuer.

๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป (๐—”๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜€)
โ€ข Consumers should be refunded for Agent mistakes (e.g., mandate breaches / hallucinations) through practical redress mechanisms.
โ€ข Consumers typically have a 14-day โ€œno-questions-askedโ€ right of withdrawal (refund from the merchant) โ€” but questions remain as to how liability is allocated between the merchant and the Agent for Agent mistakes.

๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜†
โ€ข Agents should clearly disclose sponsored results / incentives from merchants.

๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€:

1. ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€. How to โ€œoperationalizeโ€ consumer rights against the Agent for hallucinations (e.g., extension of the chargeback mechanism)?
2. ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. Will Agents prefer to contract with a few selected large merchants?
3. ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. Who will be โ€œintelligentโ€ here, the Agent or the merchant? Will the Agent really know the cardholderโ€™s preferences, or will it defer this to the merchant?
4. ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด. Will the Agent make its decisions based on the cardholderโ€™s preferences, or based on referral fees from merchants?
5. ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฆ๐— ๐—˜๐˜€. Which legal and policy levers to encourage Agents to contract with small and medium-sized merchants?

Special thanks to Elina Mattila and Giesecke+Devrient for organizing and hosting such a great discussion โ€” and to all participants for the thoughtful questions.

Deck attached โ€” Iโ€™d love to hear your thoughts!

Andrea De Matteis

AgenticCommerce ย Payments EURegulation

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—–๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ

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