A Brussels crackdown on contactless payments could cause mass confusion for millions of customers and trigger a €57bn (£48bn) hit to businesses across Europe, experts have warned.

The new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules require banks to verify a customer’s identity every time they make payments totalling €100 (£85).

It means that if customers breach this limit through repeated contactless card payments, they will be forced to type their pin into a machine.

There are fears that the changes – which have already been introduced by Britain's biggest banks – will baffle customers, meaning many walk away rather than paying.

A report published by 451 Research that was commissioned by payments company Stripe estimated that €57bn of payments across the European Union will be abandoned as a result of the extra checks.

Bó, the digital bank launched last year by NatWest owner Royal Bank of Scotland, has now been forced to issue more than 6,000 new cards to its customers in order to comply with the new rules.