The limited network exclusion was written for a network that stays limited.

Fuel cards have relied on it for years. Extending acceptance into EV charging pushes in exactly the direction the exclusion was drafted to constrain.

01 What it is

Article 3(k) of PSD2 puts certain specific payment instruments outside the Directive altogether, where they can be used only in a limited way. The European Banking Authority lists store cards, fuel cards, public transport cards and meal vouchers among the instruments that might benefit.

For a fuel card issuer this is not a technicality. It is the difference between operating a commercial product and operating a licensed payment institution, with everything that follows in capital, governance, safeguarding and supervision.

02 What changed in 2022

The EBA narrowed the room.

Guidelines EBA/GL/2022/02, published in February 2022 and applying from 1 June 2022, set out how national competent authorities should assess whether a network of service providers or a range of goods and services really is limited. Issuers already relying on the exclusion were given a three-month transitional period to submit a fresh notification.

The EBA declined to publish fixed numeric thresholds. Assessment is case by case, and the indicators were deliberately drafted at a high level so they could stretch across very different industries. What the EBA did say about its own reasoning is the part worth reading twice: the indicators exist to prevent the exponential growth of limited networks without proper oversight by the competent authority, and issuers are expected to be able to forecast where their own business plans will take them against those indicators.

Growth is not a side effect the guidelines tolerate. Growth is the thing they were written to catch.

03 The notification duty

One million euro, and it is stricter than it reads.

Article 37(2) of PSD2 requires an issuer relying on the exclusion to notify its competent authority once the value of payment transactions exceeds EUR 1 million. The guidelines tighten how that is counted.

That last point is the one that catches issuers. Materially extending what the instrument can be used for, or where, is the textbook example of a substantial change.

The calculation is made at the level of the issuer. Where one issuer runs several instruments under Article 3(k), the values are combined.
Notification goes to the competent authority in each Member State where the users are located and the threshold is exceeded there.
The threshold bites over any period shorter than twelve months in which it is crossed — in practice a rolling calculation, not a calendar-year one.
The notification is made once, but a fresh one is required when the information previously supplied changes substantially.

04 Why EV is the pressure point

Every charger added is a step in the wrong direction.

A fossil fuel card network is bounded by a finite estate of forecourts, built slowly, owned by a handful of counterparties. That is a shape a supervisor can recognise as limited.

Charging infrastructure is the opposite shape. It grows continuously, across many operators, in many Member States, through roaming arrangements the issuer does not control. An issuer bolting EV acceptance onto a fuel card is enlarging both the number of acceptance points and their geographic spread — and doing so on a trajectory rather than a step.

None of that is automatically fatal to the exclusion. It is, though, precisely the direction of travel the 2022 guidelines were designed to surface, and it is very likely a substantial change to whatever was notified before.

05 What is coming

PSD3 and the PSR — agreed, not yet law.

The Parliament and the Council reached a provisional political agreement on the PSD3 and PSR package in November 2025, and the Council published final compromise texts on 23 April 2026. As of August 2026 the package remains politically agreed but not formally adopted and not applicable law. PSD2 and its existing technical standards and guidelines remain the operative framework.

Publication in the Official Journal has been expected in the second half of 2026, with most rules applying roughly twenty-one months after entry into force and Member States transposing PSD3 on a comparable clock. Existing payment institution and e-money licences are grandfathered for a defined period, subject to timely re-authorisation.

Timelines in this area have moved repeatedly. Treat any date here as indicative and check the current position before relying on it. Nothing on this page is legal advice.

06 What to do now

The useful question is not “are we still exempt” but “what would we have to show a supervisor, and when does our own roadmap break the answer”.

Establish what was actually notified, in which Member States, and when.
Recalculate the threshold at issuer level across every instrument, on a rolling basis.
Take the acceptance-network growth curve out of the business plan and read it as a supervisor would.
Decide deliberately whether the destination is a defensible exclusion, a licence, or an acceptance structure where the regulated activity sits with somebody who is already authorised.
Do it before the roadmap makes the decision for you.

07 Where I help

Exclusion position review: What has been notified, what the current numbers are, and where the roadmap crosses the line. Output: a written position with the reasoning and the open questions for your counsel.
Acceptance structure options: The commercially realistic ways to extend acceptance without moving the regulated activity onto your own balance sheet. Output: options with the trade-offs stated.
Counterparty and contract review: Where responsibility for the regulated elements actually sits in your agreements, and whether the drafting says what the commercial model assumes.

Commercial advisory only. Delvant gives no legal advice and is not a substitute for regulatory counsel or a supervisory dialogue.

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