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I assent.
(L.S.) GEORGE VELLA
President
27th July, 2021
ACT No. LIII of 2021
An ACT to further amend the Criminal Code, Cap. 9.
BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the House of Represent atives, in this present Parlia ment
assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Short title.
Cap. 9.1. The short title of this Act is the Criminal Code (Amendment
No. 7) Act, 2021 and this Act shall be read and construed as on e with
the Criminal Code, hereinafter referred to as "the Code".
Addition of new 
Sub-title to the 
Code.2. Immediately after article 310C of the Code there shall be
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added the following new sub-title:
"Sub-title IIIA
OF FRAUD AND COUNTERFEITING OF 
NON-CASH MEANS OF PAYMENT
Scope. 310D.  The measures provided for in this sub-title
transpose the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/713 of
the European Parlia ment and of the C ouncil of 17 April
2019 on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment and replacing Council
Framework Decision 2001/413/JHA.
Interpretation. 310E.  For the purposes of this sub-title, unless the
context otherwise requires:
(a) "non-cash payment instrument" means
a non-corporeal or corporeal protected device,object or record, or a combination thereof, other
than legal tender, and which, alone or in
conjunction with a procedure or a set ofprocedures, enables the holder or user to transfer
money or monetary value, including through
digital means of exchange; 
(b) "protected device, object or record"
means a device, object or record safeguardedagainst imitation or fra udulent use, for example
through design, coding or signature; 
Cap. 376 (c) "digital means of exchange" means
any electronic money as def ined in article 2 of the
Financial Institutions Act or virtual currency;
(d) "virtual currency" means a digital
representation of value that is not issued orguaranteed by a central bank or a public authority,
is not necessarily attached to a legally established
currency and does not possess a legal status of acurrency or money, but is accepted by natural or
legal persons as a means of exchange, and which
may be transferred, stored and tradedelectronically; 
(e) "information system" shall have the
same meaning as is assigned to it in sub-article
(1) of article 337B;
(f) "computer data" shall have the same
meaning as as is assigned to it in sub-article (1) of
article 337B;
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(g) "legal person" means an entity having
legal personality under the applicable law,
excluding States or public bodies in the exercise
of state authority a nd public international
organisations.
Fraudulent use of 
non-cash payment 
instruments and 
information systems.310F.  Any person who intenti onally commits any of
the following acts shall be guilty of an offence against
this article:
(a) the fraudulent use of a stolen or
otherwise unlawfully appropriated or obtained
non-cash payment instrument; 
(b) the fraudulent use of a counterfeit or
falsified non-cash payment instrument;
(c) the theft or other unlawful
appropriation of a corporeal non-cash payment
instrument; 
(d) the fraudulent counterfeiting or
falsification of a cor poreal non-cash payment
instrument; 
(e) the possession of a  stolen or otherwise
unlawfully appropriated, or of a counterfeit or
falsified corporeal non-cash payment instrument
for fraudulent use; 
(f) the procurement for oneself or
another, including the receipt, appropriation,purchase, transfer, import, export, sale, transport
or distribution of a stolen, counterfeit or falsified
corporeal non-cash payment instrument forfraudulent use;
(g) the unlawful attainment of a non-
corporeal non-cash payment instrument when this
attainment has involved the commission of at
least one of the offences referred to in sub-article
(1) of article 337C, or misappropriation of a non-
corporeal non-cash payment instrument; 
(h) the fraudulent counterfeiting or
falsification of a non-co rporeal non-cash payment
instrument; 
(i) the holding of an unlawfully obtained,
counterfeit or falsified non-corporeal non-cash
payment instrument for fraudulent use, at least if
the unlawful origin is known at the time of the
holding of the instrument; 
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(j) the procurement for oneself or
another, including the sale, transfer or
distribution, or the making available, of an
unlawfully obtained, counterfeit or falsified non-
corporeal non-cash payment instrument forfraudulent use;
(k) performing or causing a transfer of
money, monetary value or virtual currency and
thereby causing an unlaw ful loss of property for
another person, in order to make an unlawful gainfor the perpetrator or a third party, when such
action is intentionally committed either by:
(i) without right, hindering or
interfering with the functioning of aninformation system; or 
(ii) without right, introducing,
altering, deleting, transmitting or
suppressing computer data;
(l) producing, procuring for oneself or
another, including the import, export, sale,
transport or distribution, or making available adevice or an instrument, computer data or any
other means primarily designed or specifically
adapted for the purpose of committing any of the
offences referred to in paragraphs (c), (d), (g), (h)
and (k), with the intention that such means be
used.
Offences and 
penalties. 310G.  (1) Whosoever commits any offence referred
to in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d), (g), (h) and (l) of
article 310 shall, on conviction, be liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding two (2) years.
(2) Whosoever commits any offence referred to in
paragraphs (e), (f), (i) and (j) of article 310F shall, on
conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term notexceeding one year.
(3) Whosoever commits the offence referred to in
paragraph (k) of article 310 F shall, on conviction, be
liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three(3) years.
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(4) Whosoever commits any offence referred to in
paragraphs (a) to (k) of article 310F within the
framework of a criminal organisation, as defined in
Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24
October 2008 on the fight against organised crime,shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding five (5) years.
Aiding and 
abetting. 310H.  (1) Whosoever aids, abets or instigates any
offence under this Sub-title s hall be guilty of an offence
and shall be liable on convict ion to the punishment laid
down for the offence aided, abetted or instigated and
articles 42 and 43 shall apply mutatis mutandis .
(2) An attempt to commit any offence referred to
in this Sub-title shall be punishable as a criminal
offence, and article 41 shall apply mutatis mutandis .
Responsibi lity of 
legal persons.310I.  (1)  Notwithstanding any other provision of
this Code, where any offence referred to in article 310F
or in article 310H is committed for the benefit of a legal
person by any person, acting either individually or aspart of an organ of the legal person, who holds a leading
position within that legal person on the basis of one of
the following: 
(a) a power of representation of the legal
person; 
(b) an authority to take decisions on
behalf of the legal person; 
(c) an authority to exercise control within
the legal person,
said legal person who acts in that manner shall, onconviction, be liable to a fine ( multa ) of not less than
twenty thousand euro (€20,0 00) and not more than two
hundred thousand euro (€200,000). 
(2) Sub-article (1) shall apply mutatis mutandis
where the lack of supervision or control by a naturalperson referred to therein has made possible thecommission of any of the offences referred to in article
310F or in article 310H for the benefit of the legal
person by a person under its authority.
(3) Liability of legal persons pursuant to sub-
articles (1) and (2) shall not exclude criminal
proceedings against nat ural persons who are
perpetrators or inciters of, or accessories to, any of theoffences referred to in artic le 310F or in article 310H.
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(4) Without prejudice and in addition to any
penalty that may be impose d pursuant to the preceding
sub-articles, any legal person for whose benefit any
offence as referred to therein is committed may, on
conviction, be liable to any  or all of the following
sanctions:
(a) exclusion from entitlement to public
benefits or aid;
(b) temporary exclusion from access to
public funding, including tender procedures,grants and concessions;
(c) temporary or permanent
disqualification from the practice of commercialactivities;
(d) placing under judicial supervision;
(e) judicial winding-up;
(f) temporary or permanent closure of
establishments which have been used for
committing the offence.
Jurisdiction. 310J.  (1) Without prejudice to the provisions of
article 5, the Courts of Malta shall have jurisdictionover the offences laid down in article 310F or article
310H where one or more of the following apply:
(a) the offence is committed in whole or
in part on the terri tory of Malta; 
(b) the offender is a Maltese national or a
permanent resident of Malta;
(c) the offender has hi s habitual residence
in the territory of Malta; 
(d) the offence is committed for the
benefit of a legal person established in the
territory of Malta; 
(e) the offence is committed against a
Maltese national or a per son who is a habitual
resident in the territory of Malta. 
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (a) of sub-article
(1), an offence shall be considered to have been
committed in whole or in par t on the territory of Malta
where the offender commits the offence when
physically present on that territory and irrespective of
whether the offence is co mmitted using an information
system on that territory.
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Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 488 of th e
13th July, 2021.Power to make 
regulations under 
this Sub-title.310K.  The Minister responsible for justice may
make regulations to give bet ter effect to the provisions
of this sub-title.".
ANĠLU FARRUGIA
Speaker
RAYMOND SCICLUNA
Clerk of the House of Representatives
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