Air Europa chooses Riskified to reduce impact of new EU payments regulations

Carrier among the first firms to adopt firm’s PSD2 Optimization solution

ECommerce conversion specialist Riskified will provide airline Air Europa with PSD2 compliant technology to optimise its booking process.

The Spanish carrier, which is part of Globalia, chose the Riskified solution to ensure a smooth booking experience for customers while remaining within new EU payments rules.

The integration means the airline is among the first firms to adopt the Riskified PSD2 Optimization solution.

Yago Casasnovas, payments and fraud prevention manager at Air Europa, said: “PSD2’s consumer protections address a real need in the market, but their implementation is likely to impact the customer experience at all e-commerce sites.

“Riskified PSD2 Optimization enables us to fully comply with the regulation while continuing to provide our customers a safe, satisfying booking experience with minimal friction.”

Riskified claims European merchants could miss out on up to 15% of their revenue if they do not address the regulation.

PSD2 requires online shoppers to undergo a more rigorous authentication process known as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) to combat fraud.

SCA is expected to dramatically reduce conversion rates for merchants. However, some transactions can be exempted from SCA and, instead, undergo a friction-free verification, Transaction Risk Analysis (TRA).

TRA provides consumers with a better shopping experience that prevents SCA-associated cart abandonment. Riskified said as a result, merchants that “maximize their use of TRA will protect their eCommerce revenues and brand reputation”.

Riskified PSD2 Optimization uses machine learning to increase the percentage of orders that undergo TRA.

It also collects data from Riskified’s merchant network, providing insight into issuers and acquirers performance under the regulation.

Air Europa expects to capture between £7 million and £12 million of revenue that would have otherwise been lost to SCA-related cart abandonment within the first year of PSD2 coming into force.

Since 2017, Air Europa has used Riskified’s chargeback-guarantee fraud-prevention solution to increase approved transactions and reduce costs.

In that time, Air Europa’s order approval rate has improved by 10% reducing chargebacks by 95%, said Riskified.

Assaf Feldman, co-founder and chief technology offer at Riskified, said: “Air Europa is a tech-savvy company, and customer satisfaction is a major priority.

“By using Riskified PSD2 Optimization, the airline will ensure they maximize their customer experience while complying with the new regulation.

“Our solution allows Air Europa to capture as much revenue as possible under PSD2.”