Payments, energy and sales in Europe, explained daily from the point of view of businesses.
Selected stories from European payments and sales, every day: regulation such as mandatory card acceptance in Germany and PSD3, new schemes such as Wero and the digital euro, figures and strategies from providers such as Adyen, Stripe or PayPal. Every story answers three questions: what happened, who is affected, what to do now. Plus the energy transition from the point of view of businesses and property owners: heat supply, Germany’s heating law, the CO₂ price, energy prices. Background on recurring topics is in the payments guides and energy guides, the week at a glance in the weekly briefing.
Every story in my own words, with the source, and with one sentence you are free to quote. RSS
Destatis confirms 2.8 per cent inflation for October 2026. Heating oil cost 84.5 per cent more year on year, electricity 5.2 and gas 1.2 per cent less.
“Anyone heating with oil is paying almost double last year’s price this autumn, while electricity and gas got cheaper. The choice of fuel is no longer a climate question, it is a cost question.”
The German day-ahead power price averaged 169.27 euros per megawatt hour in October 2026, the highest monthly figure since December 2022.
“Anyone whose power is linked to the exchange price paid around 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour more in October than a year ago, before grid fees and taxes are even added.”
EnBW, EWE and municipal utilities raise default gas tariffs from 1 January 2027. At 20,000 kWh, the extra cost ranges from €215 to €566 a year.
“Anyone reading only the percentage in the price letter compares the wrong thing, because heating costs in 2027 depend on unit rate, standing charge and how long the supplier’s cheaper procurement lasts.”
Berlin plans to cut its grid subsidy from €6.5bn to €5.525bn from 2027. Without a law by 7 December, final transmission fees are likely to rise.
“The federal subsidy is not a discount but a budget item renegotiated every year. Anyone fixing electricity costs for 2028 should treat grid fees as a risk, not as a constant.”
The Bundestag will not pass the EEG reform and grid package by mid-November, and the Bundesrat next sits on 18 December. Support from 2027 remains open.
“Anyone planning a solar system for 2027 is currently calculating with a law that does not yet exist. That is no reason to cancel, but a reason to tie contracts to the subsidy rules.”
Ten weeks after the key points of 26 August, the heat network package still has no draft bill. District heating customers face winter without new rules.
“Anyone paying for district heating gets neither price oversight nor a transparency platform this winter. The only scrutiny remains what a customer takes to court themselves.”
The first power plant tender is decided: 11 of 41 bids, 5,160 MW, around €800 million a year via a new levy on the electricity price.
“Anyone who wants security of supply for low-wind, low-sun periods will pay for it as a levy on every kilowatt-hour. Businesses and landlords should build this item into their electricity planning from 2031, even though it has no number yet.”
On 29 October 2026 the ECB kept the deposit rate at 2.50 per cent and warned of a prolonged energy shock weighing on prices and growth.
“The ECB waits, the energy price does not. Anyone financing heating and heat supply should calculate interest and fuel costs together, not separately.”
German inflation fell to 2.8 per cent in October 2026, with energy still 12.2 per cent above the prior year. Heating oil and fuel drove it, not electricity and gas.
“The inflation rate is falling, the heating bill is not automatically following. Anyone who looks only at the headline overlooks that heating oil and wholesale gas are building the price pressure for winter.”
The TTF gas price hit 100.30 euros per MWh on 28 October, a first since 2022. German new-customer gas tariffs were 12 per cent higher by September.
“Today’s exchange price is the heating bill of the day after tomorrow. Anyone signing or renewing a gas contract now is deciding their costs well into 2027.”
Germany's grid operators have published the 2027 electricity levies: offshore charge 1.143 ct/kWh, total for end users 3.621 ct/kWh.
“The EEG levy is gone, but the quiet charges on the electricity bill keep rising — anyone who looks only at the energy rate overlooks a growing share of their electricity costs.”
Germany's transmission operators put the EEG financing requirement for 2027 at €17.524 billion – around a billion above the figure in the budget.
“That cheap wholesale power makes green-energy support more expensive sounds paradoxical, but it is by design: the lower the market price falls, the larger the gap the state guarantees to older plants.”
German gas storage was 61.1 per cent full on 26 October, says the Bundesnetzagentur, and will miss the 80 per cent target for 1 November.
“The Bundesnetzagentur has settled whether homes stay warm. What a kilowatt hour of gas costs in February is in no situation report; that is decided by the contract.”
The ECB survey for September shows inflation expectations of 3.1 per cent and a growth outlook that has fallen to minus 1.5 per cent.
“When people expect higher inflation and less growth, they hold on to their money — and that decides the Christmas trade long before the first price goes on the shelf.”
In the third quarter of 2026 solar supplied 28.4 per cent of grid power — yet the wholesale price still rose 51.7 per cent, because expensive gas sets the price.
“More cheap solar power and dearer wholesale power at the same time is no contradiction but merit order: as long as the last gas plant sets the price, every business pays the gas price too.”
Green-power supplier grüüün is ending its supply on 31 October 2026; the Bundesnetzagentur opened supervisory proceedings on 20 October.
“A supply stop in November is no small annoyance for households and businesses: anyone who does not switch in time lands in basic supply and pays the highest price in the middle of the heating season.”
Producer prices stood 6.7 per cent above the prior year in September 2026, the strongest rise since March 2023. Energy cost 14.9 per cent more.
“Producer prices are the forerunner of the next bill. When energy rises by almost 15 per cent at the manufacturing stage, that lands with a lag on every business and every tenant.”
A new levy on every kilowatt hour of gas is to fund the national gas reserve from 1 October 2027 — 247 to 308 million euros a year.
“A reserve for emergencies makes sense — but it lands as a new levy on every gas bill, on top of the CO₂ price and grid fees, and customers deserve to be told that plainly.”
On 16 October 2026 the Bundestag passed the BEHG amendment. The CO₂ price for heating stays within a corridor of 55 to 65 euros per tonne in 2027.
“The cap of 55 to 65 euros is the last calm year before European emissions trading. Anyone heating with fossil fuels should use 2027 for calculating, not for sitting still.”
On 15 October 2026 the ECJ ruled that banks must refund unauthorised payments first and only afterwards examine gross negligence.
“This ruling reverses the order: refund first, argue later. It takes away the victim's fear of going to court and puts the burden where the systems run.”
On 16 October the Bundesrat approved the release of 19.5 million barrels of oil; diesel and heating oil come to market first, and the mandatory reserve drops temporarily.
“A strategic reserve is emergency cover, not a price cap. If you heat with oil, use a short dip, but don’t bet that it lasts the whole winter.”
On 15 October 2026 the Bundestag passed the Digital Identities Act in its third reading; the EUDI wallet “d-you” launches on 2 January 2027.
“For merchants the wallet is not a government matter but an onboarding question: anyone who has to verify age, identity or signing authority online can do it in one step from 2027 instead of five.”
On 14 October 2026 the BMWE presented key points for a green gas quota: one per cent from 2028, a hundred per cent by 2045, for private households only.
“Anyone running a gas or oil boiler gets a second cost lever from the quota alongside the CO₂ price: the green share is bought in and ends up on the tenants’ heating bill.”
New-customer tariffs rose sharply in 2026 according to a GET analysis: electricity +18.4 per cent, gas +39.4 per cent since January. Basic supply moves the other way.
“Switching was the safe saving trick for years. In 2026 you have to do the maths first: the new tariff can be dearer than the old one, especially for gas, where procurement feeds straight through.”
DHL Group will not add Wero as a payment method for now, it said on 13 October 2026, citing low adoption and the digital euro.
“Large merchants are not rejecting Wero for lack of goodwill, but because the numbers do not add up. As long as hardly any customers ask for it, every new checkout payment method is a cost without revenue.”
Friedrich Merz wants to cut Germany’s electricity tax to the EU minimum for everyone, he said on 12 October 2026. So far only about 600,000 firms benefit.
“For a retailer or a hotel, electricity tax is not a minor item but two cents on every kilowatt hour. An announcement does not lower a bill, though; only a draft law with a date does.”
According to a KfW study, Germany needs €290bn of climate investment a year until 2045, 22 per cent of it in buildings. Private players carry €257bn.
“The bill does not land with the state but with owners and businesses. Anyone who has to replace their heating in the coming years should clarify now how they will finance the investment.”
According to ene't, provisional 2027 gas grid fees rise by just over 1 per cent, low-voltage electricity falls slightly. Medium voltage: +3.5 per cent.
“The average is reassuring, the spread is not. Whether a business pays more or less for the grid in 2027 depends on its grid area and voltage level, not on the headline.”
Since October 2026 PPRO offers Wero subscriptions: customers approve once, then the merchant collects by mandate. For customers in Germany only for now.
“A Wero subscription is only as good as the answer to three questions: what each transaction costs, who manages the mandate and what happens when the customer ends it with one tap.”
German gas storage is 59.4 per cent full, says the Bundesnetzagentur. Supply is considered secure; price effects for customers depend on contracts.
“Supply is secure, the price is not. Anyone heating with gas should look at their contract now rather than wait for the bill in spring.”
According to bevh, German online retail of goods grew by only 2.9 per cent to around €18.5 billion in the third quarter of 2026, less than September inflation of 3.3 per cent. Shein, Temu and AliExpress lost 35.5 per cent after the customs exemption was abolished, pure online shops shrank by 0.8 per cent and marketplaces grew by 5 per cent.
“The slump at Temu and Shein is no gift to German shops. Anyone who wants the revenue that is freeing up has to capture it in their own checkout, and there every abandonment counts.”
Mastercard is mandating offline payments across Europe: from February 2027 all newly issued cards will be offline-capable, and from May 2027 all new and replacement terminals must follow. During a network or power outage, the chip approves up to €200 per payment locally.
“A terminal that goes silent at the first network outage is a fair-weather device. Mastercard is now making resilience mandatory, and that question belongs in every terminal conversation.”
According to Bundesbank data, around 1.8 million fraudulent payment transactions caused more than €580 million in losses in Germany in 2025. From 10 October, the Bundesbank, the Federal Ministry of Finance and companies from finance, telecoms and retail will run a month-long phishing awareness campaign under the motto “Machen wir Phishen Impossible!”.
“Payment fraud is not stopped at the till but in the minds of the people in front of it and behind it. That is why this campaign belongs in every retail team meeting.”
From 20 November 2026, a rental or leasing contract with a consumer counts as a financial accommodation as soon as the customer is allowed to buy the item at the end. Until now, only a purchase obligation, a right of the business to require the purchase or a residual value guarantee triggered consumer credit law. A retailer’s own free payment terms of up to 50 days remain exempt.
“Many retailers sell rental with a purchase option as an alternative to credit. From 20 November it legally is credit, with every obligation that comes with it.”
According to a YouGov survey for the cooperative association Genoverband, 56 per cent of adults in Germany were unable to pay cashless as intended at least once in 2026, up from 45 per cent in 2021. 77 per cent of 196 Volksbank board members surveyed support an acceptance obligation for card and digital payments.
“A customer who has to turn around at the till never shows up in any of the business’s statistics. That is exactly why so many owners underestimate what the cash-only sign costs them.”
According to the B2B-Marktmonitor by IFH KÖLN/ECC KÖLN, CGI and Intershop, manufacturers and wholesalers in Germany generated €549 billion through online shops and marketplaces in 2025, 7.9 per cent more than the previous year. 82 per cent of decision-makers surveyed expect field sales to shift from traditional selling towards solution and advisory partnerships.
“Once the customer handles reorders online, field sales is left with the conversation no shop can have. Anyone not trained for that will be replaced by their own web shop.”
According to a Bitkom survey of 603 companies, 57 per cent use AI, but only 14 per cent of them in sales, compared with 72 per cent in customer contact. An article in Vertriebszeitung on 5 October sets out five exercises salespeople can start with on their next working day.
“AI in sales rarely fails because of the technology, but because nobody shows the salesperson which two hours a week they get back.”
The German Retail Federation HDE is calling for a fair, transparent and low-cost fee model for the digital euro; benchmarking fees against established payment methods should apply at most for a transition period and take national specifics into account. On 6 October at 15:00 the ECB will explain online how it selects merchants for the twelve-month pilot starting in 2027.
“Anyone who pegs the price of the digital euro to the European card average makes it more expensive for German merchants who take payments cheaply with girocard today. The national specific is the real price anchor here.”
On 24 August 2026 the ECB Governing Council designated the Visa Europe Payment System as systemically important by Decision ECB/2026/22, made public on 2 October. Both major card schemes are now under Eurosystem oversight; Mastercard’s clearing system has been since the 2019 review.
“The ECB now looks as closely at Visa as it does at Mastercard. But it checks whether the system runs, not what the merchant pays for it.”
A guest article in Vertriebszeitung on 1 October 2026 describes a company with eight sales territories, of which only the two around its headquarters performed. The cause was a market position built up over 15 years, not the salespeople’s performance. An experience-based article without study figures.
“Anyone who measures a new territory against the revenue of the core market turns a structural problem into a people problem and ends up losing the very people who were supposed to build the market.”
On 1 October 2026 the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) ruled invalid the clause Amazon used in 2022 to raise the annual Prime fee from 69 to 89.90 euros (III ZR 205/25). The reason: customers could not tell whether they could only fend off the increase by cancelling or simply by objecting.
“A price increase in a subscription is not a payments problem, it is a contract problem. If you do not spell out what the customer can do about it, you lose both the increase and the trust.”
On 30 September 2026 Stripe announced the acquisition of Parafin, a provider of embedded credit for small businesses on platforms such as DoorDash, Amazon and Gusto. Parafin says it has funded more than 3 billion US dollars to over 60,000 US businesses; the price was not disclosed.
“The payment provider sees every euro of revenue and lends against exactly that. It is convenient for the merchant, but every loan repaid through settlement makes switching providers a little harder.”
According to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office, consumer prices in Germany in September 2026 were 3.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, after 2.9 per cent in August. Energy rose by 14.9 per cent, core inflation stayed at 2.4 per cent. For merchants, operating costs and percentage-based payment fees are rising at the same time.
“Percentage-based card fees grow with every price increase without anyone changing a price list. In an inflationary autumn, this is the moment to recalculate your own terms in euros.”
76 per cent of respondents would find digital shopping assistants attractive, according to a survey of more than 1,000 people commissioned by Lufthansa Industry Solutions and published on 30 September 2026. Three in four browse online shops at least weekly, but only every second person buys. After a frustrating search, 45 per cent switch to another retailer.
“Abandonment rarely starts at the checkout, it starts at the search. If you lose customers there, you do not need a faster checkout but a better answer to the question of what fits.”
On 30 September 2026 Payconiq ceased operating in Luxembourg; Wero now handles payments in store, in webshops and on invoices through five banks. According to EPI, old Payconiq QR codes can still be scanned with the Wero app until 31 December 2026. For German merchants, it is the first fully completed Wero migration to study.
“Luxembourg shows what a Wero switchover looks like when it is actually carried through: with a cut-off date, a grace period for old QR codes and merchants who had to act beforehand.”
On 29 September 2026 the EHI published its analysis of Germany's 1,000 most important online shops: 97.2 per cent offer a wallet, Apple Pay rose from 37.8 to 49.0 per cent, Google Pay from 23.1 to 32.0 per cent. Wero is reported separately for the first time and stands at 3.0 per cent, while buying on invoice remains standard at 81.7 per cent.
“Apple Pay gains more than eleven points in a year, Wero starts at three per cent. Checkout is not decided in Brussels but on the customer’s phone.”
On 30 September 2026 Bancomat, Bizum, EPI/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay set up a joint company headquartered in Madrid to connect their payment solutions across borders. Together the five reach around 130 million users in 13 countries. Person-to-person payments come first; e-commerce and the shop till follow later, with no date.
“A European network for 130 million users is good news. For the merchant, though, what counts is the day a Spanish Bizum customer can pay at their till, and nobody is naming that date yet.”
According to a Verivox survey published on 25 September 2026, 15 per cent of Germans would prefer to pay for an online purchase of 1,000 euros in instalments, up from 9 per cent in 2024. From 20 November 2026 interest-free and short-term payment deferrals also fall under consumer credit law. According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, classic buying on invoice remains exempt in principle.
“Instalment buying is growing at exactly the moment it becomes regulated. Merchants should know now which of their payment methods count as credit from November and which do not.”
In the Vertriebszeitung of 28 September 2026, Alexander Wolter (Mercuri International) advises machine builders to sell digital services in the requirements phase — before the specification is written. Simple monitoring can be retrofitted, deeper intervention in machine control cannot; and customers usually lack anyone with budget responsibility for efficiency gains. An experience-based piece without study figures.
“If you only put your service into the proposal once the specification is finished, you are no longer selling a solution, you are defending a surcharge.”
On 28 September 2026 the ECB opened a new wave of its digital euro innovation platform. Merchants, payment service providers, fintechs and others can apply until 9 November 2026, 17:00 CET; the experiments on integrated electronic receipts, multi-party payments and conditional payments run from January to June 2027.
“For merchants the digital euro will not be decided on its fee but on whether it can do something the card cannot. An electronic receipt within the payment itself would be such a point.”
On 28 September 2026 Shopify switched on WebMCP tools for checkout: browser agents can read the checkout, fill in fields and submit the order once the buyer has confirmed. The capability goes to all eligible Shopify merchants automatically, with no configuration. As soon as 3-D Secure or a blocking extension requires input, control goes back to the human.
“An agent that handles everything up to the order but hands back to the human at 3-D Secure shows fairly precisely where liability still sits today: with the customer and the merchant.”
From 1 October 2026, Austrian businesses may provide the cash register receipt digitally, by email, app or on a customer-facing display to scan. Customers and the tax authority can still demand a paper receipt until closing time on the same day. The announced receipt lottery, however, is not coming: the Ministry of Finance cancelled it in May 2026.
“Anyone in Austria who takes payment by Bankomat card has a cash sale. The digital receipt saves paper, but only if till, display and terminal fit together in the checkout flow.”
On 23 September 2026 the German federal cabinet adopted the draft of the Zweites Kassengesetz (Second Cash Register Act). From 1 January 2028, businesses with more than 100,000 euros annual turnover need an electronic till system, with an exemption below 12,000 euros in cash sales. The paper receipt becomes the exception; receipts come via QR code, link or customer account.
“The open cash box was always the cheapest till, but never the most economical. Anyone switching now should plan till and card terminal together rather than signing two contracts side by side.”
According to the Boston Consulting Group’s Global Payments Report 2026, consumers in Germany made 196 card payments per capita in 2025, against an EU average of 327. The figure is growing faster in Germany, at 11.3 per cent, than in the EU. At the same time, 79 per cent of the large merchants surveyed report that their payment costs have risen over five years.
“Cards are growing faster in Germany than anywhere else in Europe. This is exactly the phase in which merchants decide whether to negotiate their payment costs or simply let them grow along.”
According to the Expleo AI Pulse of 22 September 2026, 36 per cent of executives surveyed in Germany would trust a company less if its communication came entirely from AI. Only 22 per cent would trust it more. In junior management, 47 per cent say trust falls.
“If you let AI write your prospecting entirely, you save time when hitting send and lose it on trust, because the buyer notices that nobody stands behind the sentence.”
On 22 September 2026 Adyen presented an upgrade to its authentication product Authenticate: a machine-learning model decides for each payment whether and how to authenticate, choosing between 3D Secure, Google Secure Payment Authentication and the Visa and Mastercard Payment Passkeys. Pilot customers report 11 per cent (Too Good To Go) and 12 per cent (Just Eat Takeaway.com) higher payment conversion; the new methods are live only in the United Kingdom for now.
“Customer authentication is the most expensive second in the checkout. If you do not steer it, you lose revenue at a point that never shows up as an abandonment reason in any shop dashboard.”
According to the release of 25 September 2026, the NIM and GfK consumer climate falls by 3.8 points to −30.6. Income expectations slump by 16.7 points to −15.0, while the propensity to save rises by 6.0 points to 21.5, a level last seen during the 2008 financial crisis. The main reason, according to NIM: high energy prices.
“When people save, they do not pay by card less often, they buy less often. Then what decides is not the shelf price but whether the merchant has their fixed costs under control.”
Adyen and Flatpay announced a strategic partnership on 23 September 2026. Adyen will provide acquiring and the platform for Flatpay’s more than 100,000 small merchants in seven countries, including Germany. Flatpay keeps the customer relationship. Adyen adds financial products such as instant settlement, merchant cash advances and business accounts.
“When they sign, merchants buy the sales rep and the flat rate. Hardly anyone asks who settles the money behind the scenes. Yet that decides payouts and liability.”
An Appinio survey of 1,000 consumers commissioned by Riverty and Adyen shows that 49 per cent expect AI assistants to handle most of their everyday purchases within five years, and 93 per cent want to be able to view or stop AI purchases at any time. Trust on budgets is falling: only 39 per cent would entrust an AI with 51 euros or more a month, down from 50 per cent in December 2025.
“Customers want the agent, but they want to keep the way back in their own hands. For them, paying by invoice is exactly that way back, and the merchant has to pay for that expectation.”
Writing in Vertriebszeitung on 24 September 2026, interim manager Hartwig Goertler argues for an “anti-vision”: sales leaders should decide which customers, dead pipeline deals, CRM fields and duplicated responsibilities they cut before launching new initiatives. An experience-based article without study figures of its own.
“Most sales teams fail not because of too few ideas but too many. If you do not say which customers you no longer want, you pay your best people for the wrong appointments.”
On 23 September 2026 the Deutschlandstudie Innenstadt 2026/27 by CIMA, HDE and bcsd reported its best result in six years: 83.3 per cent of more than 5,000 respondents want to visit their city centre as often or more often in future. Almost two thirds come to shop, 46 per cent to browse, 45 per cent for food and drink.
“If customers want to come back to the city centre, the last minute at the till helps decide whether they return. The city wins the footfall, the merchant wins the repeat visit.”
From 24 to 26 September 2026 Revolut is trialling “Pay with Smile” in three London cafés of the Kiss the Hippo chain: customers pay by facial recognition on the new Revolut Register point-of-sale system, with no per-transaction fee for the merchant according to Revolut. The Register normally costs £699 plus VAT, half that until the end of the year.
“A zero per cent fee is not a gift but a trade: the merchant pays not with money but by putting till, account and customer relationship with the same provider.”
The ibi Payment Report 2026 by ibi research at the University of Regensburg shows a gap between bank strategy and everyday customer behaviour: the bank experts surveyed mostly rate Wero as strategically important, but only 13 per cent of consumers have a Wero account. More than 80 per cent have already used instant transfers, and only one in ten uses their own bank's wallet.
“Banks plan Wero as a strategy, customers keep paying with PayPal. As long as the till in the shop does not know Wero, every strategy remains a slide deck.”
Shopify and Meta are building Shop Pay's agentic checkout into Meta's AI agent Muse, announced on 21 September 2026 by Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke and Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang. It is meant to cover all Shopify stores; neither company has named a timeline, countries or terms. Within 24 hours two models now stand side by side: Amazon locks the agent out, Shopify puts its own payment rail underneath it.
“Whoever provides the agent with its payment rail sets the rules of the purchase. Merchants should therefore know whose rail their orders will run on before they talk about conversion.”
Amazon blocked Meta's AI agent Muse from shopping on amazon.com over the weekend; GeekWire reported it first on 21 September 2026. The reasons given: the agent did not announce itself, does not identify itself while browsing, and apparently captures customers' login credentials. For the first time it is visible who controls the door in agentic commerce.
“In agentic commerce it is not the legislator who decides who may shop, it is the merchant in their own terms of use. That door stands open as long as nobody deliberately closes it.”
On 22 September 2026 bevh and CRIF published a joint survey of 76 German online shops: 93 per cent have already been confronted with fraud or attempted fraud, 48 per cent see cases rising. The most common patterns — denied receipt of goods and ordering without intent to pay — hit exactly those payment methods where the merchant carries the risk alone.
“Fraud figures are really payment-method figures. Anyone offering purchase on account buys the turnover together with the default risk — that belongs in the pricing, not in the year-end loss report.”
On 21 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung published a practitioner piece by Hermina Deiana: companies analyse customers through metrics and dashboards but hold too few real conversations with them. In the terminal and payment business that hurts more than elsewhere, because satisfied and churn-ready customers produce identical numbers.
“A terminal customer does not cancel because they became dissatisfied, they cancel because nobody asked them anything for two years. In the CRM both look identical until the last day.”
The B2BEST Barometer from ECC KÖLN, synaigy and Intershop of 17 September 2026 shows: 39 per cent of the 200 wholesalers and manufacturers surveyed spend more than 40 per cent of their selling time on administrative tasks. At the same time, 74 per cent consider the risk of losing a customer to be high if an enquiry is not answered the same day.
“If four out of ten sales teams spend half their week in forms, that is not a diligence problem. It is a process problem, and it costs deals that could have closed the same day.”
On 21 September 2026 the Eurosystem launched Pontes: it allows transactions in tokenised securities to be settled in central bank money. Thirteen market participants, four DLT operators and the Bundesbank are connected, with full rollout planned for 2028. It has nothing to do with the digital euro for consumers.
“Pontes is infrastructure for banks, not for tills. Anyone who is sold this news as the launch of the digital euro should also recalculate the terms offered by the same person.”
On 21 September 2026 the ifo Institute published a special analysis of its business survey: 50 per cent of companies name bureaucracy as the biggest problem of Germany as a business location, energy costs 27 and labour costs 22 per cent. In retail, weak demand leads with 25 per cent — more than in any other sector.
“In retail, bureaucracy is not a mood, it is a calendar. Anyone who knows the three deadlines of the next fifteen months has halved the effort before it arises.”
On 18 September 2026 the ECB published its Consumer Expectations Survey for August. Consumers in the euro area expect nominal spending to be 3.6 per cent higher over the next twelve months, but income only 1.0 per cent higher. One-year-ahead inflation expectations rise to 3.0 per cent.
“Consumers expect higher spending on the same income. At the till that does not mean more revenue, it means more small purchases — and every transaction costs the merchant the same.”
Oktoberfest has been running since 19 September 2026. Visa analysed its own transaction data and published the results on 15 September 2026. During the 2025 festival, spending in Munich was around 30 per cent higher than on ordinary summer days, and almost 70 per cent higher on peak days. The number of guests paying digitally each day doubled. Card spend per payment rose by 11 per cent.
“On peak days, the price per transaction is not what matters. What matters is whether the terminal has a signal. A card outage during the evening rush costs more than a whole year of fees.”
On 16 September 2026 the European Payments Initiative announced the first in-store use of Wero, in Belgium: a QR code on a terminal from the payment service provider Payworld, paid straight from the bank account. For Germany, EPI puts broad availability at the point of sale no earlier than 2027 — with ten million registered users in the country by now.
“A QR code on a Belgian terminal is not yet a POS rollout. Nothing changes at the German till in 2026 — but anyone signing a five-year terminal contract now is already deciding about 2027.”
PayPal has launched its PayPal+ loyalty programme in Germany, as trade media reported on 17 September 2026. Customers earn one point per five euros spent, and 1,000 points are worth ten euros. In-store, points only come with the PayPal Card or Ratenzahlung To Go. For merchants this is not a discount campaign. It is a way of steering which payment method customers choose.
“A loyalty programme is not a gift to the customer. It steers which payment method they choose. Attach points to the most expensive option at checkout and the cost lands in the merchant’s margin.”
A YouGov survey of 14 September 2026 with more than 3,600 respondents shows that 72 per cent think it must be possible to pay cashlessly in a restaurant, up from 67 per cent the year before. The figures rose in every situation surveyed, most strongly for kiosks, ice cream parlours and snack bars.
“The customer no longer debates card payment, they take it for granted. If it is missing, the business does not lose the argument, it loses the sale.”
On 17 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung published an expert article by Cassandra Schlangen on handling objections. Her core argument: anyone who answers every objection with the counter-argument they were trained on is running an objection lottery. Her proposal is a fixed sequence — observe, form a hypothesis, ask, verify, classify.
“An objection is not a disruption of the conversation, it is the only free piece of information the customer gives up voluntarily. Anyone who immediately argues back throws it away.”
On 16 September 2026 the European Parliament gave final approval to the reform of the Union Customs Code. From 1 November 2026 at the latest, member states will charge a handling fee on every parcel sent from a non-EU web shop directly to EU consumers. Platforms will count as importers. Repeated breaches carry fines of 1 to 6 per cent of the import value.
“The price advantage from the Far East was never just about product prices. It was a rules advantage. Brussels is now cashing it in, and German online merchants get a level starting line for the first time in years.”
On 16 September 2026, the Handelsverband Deutschland (German Retail Federation) rejected the planned statutory obligation to accept digital means of payment. Its reasoning: according to the association, 99 per cent of retail checkouts have long accepted both anyway. If the obligation comes after all, the HDE demands the right to pass card fees on to customers.
“Retail is not arguing about the card, it is arguing about the price of the card. Anyone who mandates acceptance without also regulating the cost per payment is merely moving the bill somewhere else.”
On 16 September 2026 the law firm Annerton opened up the regulatory question behind agentic payments: what counts is not the product label but the actual activity. If an agent accesses the account and initiates a transfer, that can be a payment initiation service requiring a licence.
“The first question to ask any provider of a paying agent is not how good its model is, but whether it holds a licence. Anyone who dodges that is not a partner.”
An analysis by PYMNTS Intelligence published on 16 September 2026 puts a number on what a gap in the checkout costs: 21 per cent of US consumers have abandoned a basket because their preferred payment method was missing. 47 per cent of them wanted to use a wallet.
“The most expensive payment method is the one you do not offer. It appears on no statement, because the customer closes the basket before that.”
On 16 September 2026 IT-Finanzmagazin published a commentary in favour of the planned mandatory card acceptance and accused merchants of not opening up the full bill when they use the cost argument. The text supplies no evidence. The hard figures are elsewhere: 55 per cent cashless purchases according to the Bundesbank, 1.397 million active girocard terminals.
“Anyone accusing merchants of talking their terminal costs down should do the maths themselves. The cost of a card payment is no secret, it is there on the statement.”
An expert article in IT-Finanzmagazin dated 15 September 2026 is a reminder that the German obligation to issue e-invoices in B2B takes effect on 1 January 2027. It applies to companies with more than 800,000 euros of prior-year turnover; from 1 January 2028 it applies to everyone. The legal basis is the Wachstumschancengesetz (German growth opportunities act), the format benchmark is the European standard EN 16931.
“The obligation to receive has applied since the start of 2025 and has bothered almost nobody, because an unprocessed XML file hurts no one. From January 2027 it is your own invoice that is affected — and with it your own incoming payments.”
On 15 September 2026 the Eurosystem published a call for e-commerce and m-commerce merchants in the euro area to apply for the digital euro pilot. The pilot starts in the second half of 2027 and runs for twelve months. Applications close on 27 October 2026 at 17:00 CET; participation is voluntary and unpaid.
“The payment journey is defined in the pilot, not in Brussels. Anyone not taking notes now will be handed a finished integration in 2029 — and will get to pay for it.”
In an objection letter to the competent US federal court, 978 signatories are calling for the proposed settlement in the credit card fee case to be rejected. The core criticism: interchange falls by only one tenth of a percentage point. For European merchants the case is instructive, because here this very item has been capped since 2015 — and costs are rising anyway.
“In Europe the interchange fee has been capped by regulation since 2015, and card costs are rising nonetheless. Anyone who only looks at interchange has never read half the bill.”
On 13 September 2026 the Europaverband der Selbständigen rejected the federal finance ministry’s key points for an obligation to offer a digital payment option. Its main argument: according to the Bundesbank study on payment behaviour, 55 per cent of recorded purchases were already paid cashlessly in 2025 — the market is managing the shift by itself.
“The association is right about its figure and draws the wrong conclusion from it. If 55 per cent already pay cashlessly, the obligation costs hardly anyone anything — except those businesses that have never done the maths at all.”
A specialist article in Vertriebszeitung on 14 September 2026 describes what system selling in technical sales actually founders on: not the technology, but unresolved roles in the buying centre and projects one would have been better off not accepting. The author names the selection of target customers, the core team and the follow-up review as the three levers.
“Anyone selling a system while talking only to the engineer has an advocate, not an order. The signature comes out of a room you have never set foot in.”
On 14 September 2026 the French payment service provider Worldline launched a payment handler for the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce originating around Google. Merchants on the Global Collect platform are to be able to accept purchases triggered by an AI on the customer's behalf — cards, mobile wallets and European schemes included.
“Connecting up is the easy part of this story. The open question remains who is liable when an agent buys the wrong thing — and as long as nobody answers it, any protocol is just a pipe.”
According to its own statement of 9 September 2026, the Polish payment scheme BLIK has processed the first pilot payment made by an AI agent: 19.99 zloty for a hand cream in the Your KAYA shop, triggered by the agent and processed via PayU. The customer granted permission in advance with a six-digit BLIK code and an approval in their banking app.
“The real news is not that an agent can pay, but where the permission for it sits: in the customer's banking app, not with the merchant and not with the agent platform.”
On 8 September 2026 BNP Paribas presented the launch of Wero for Merchants in Paris. The bank enables its merchant customers to accept Wero in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg; Air France, Decathlon, Fnac Darty and Orange are named as the first large merchants. Fnac Darty plans to start in early 2027.
“For merchants, what counts about Wero is not the European idea but the arithmetic: a checkout without card data, one integration for five markets and fees that still have to prove themselves.”
ECB rate decision of 10 September 2026: all three key rates rise by 25 basis points, with the deposit facility at 2.50 per cent from 16 September. The projections see inflation at 3.0 per cent in 2026, 2.5 per cent in 2027 and 2.1 per cent in 2028. For merchants that is two calculations: more expensive financing and an average basket size that keeps falling in real terms.
“Monetary policy matters to a merchant in exactly two places: what financing the till costs, and what the customer still puts in the basket. Right now both point the same way, and both can be worked out in an afternoon.”
Mandatory card acceptance 2027: Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has presented key points for an obligation to offer a digital payment option, as reported by dpa on 11 September 2026. Shops, hospitality businesses and service providers would have to offer at least one digital method alongside cash, including at least one European method. Minimum amounts and small-ticket surcharges would be prohibited.
“The decisive half-sentence is not in the obligation itself but in the choice: at least one European method. Anyone who today only has Visa and Mastercard at the terminal does not meet that requirement — and that affects more businesses than retail currently cares to admit.”
On 9 September 2026 Mastercard presented Agent Connect, a shared connection for merchants, AI agents, platforms and payment service providers, and reworked the Agent Suite for merchants introduced in January. Also new: Mastercard is passing Anthropic’s commerce agent blueprint on to merchants. The message to retail is: one integration, not one per assistant.
“Retailers should not have to connect to twenty assistants one by one — that is the right promise. Only it is not the interface that decides the revenue, but who ends up carrying the chargeback when the agent buys the wrong thing.”
d-you is the name of the German EUDI Wallet: the federal digital ministry announced it on 9 September 2026, the launch date is 2 January 2027, and use is voluntary and free of charge. Around 40 partners are bringing their own applications, with age verification, legally binding contracts and banking named explicitly. The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe is a launch partner with ten applications.
“For merchants, d-you is not an administrative matter but a checkout function. Anyone who has to verify age, address or authority to sign online will be able to do it in one step from 2027 instead of five — and that decides abandonment rates, not citizen friendliness.”
On 9 September 2026 Ant International, Mastercard and Visa announced a collaboration on a shared Know Your Agent framework. An AI agent that has identified itself to one provider should not have to repeat that with the others. According to the reporting, precisely the points that hit merchants remain unresolved: liability, revocation and dispute handling.
“An ID card for shopping agents is half the job. The other half is: who pays when the agent buys the wrong thing — and as long as nobody answers that, the risk sits with the merchant.”
On 10 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung described why trade fair appearances do not fail at the stand but in the appointment planning eight weeks before. That leaves just under seven weeks for the ibi Zahlungsverkehrsforum on 28 and 29 October 2026 in Frankfurt; for EuroCIS from 16 to 18 February 2027, preparation starts around the turn of the year.
“Without appointments arranged in advance, a trade fair does not buy you leads, it buys you attendance. The stand costs the money; the eight weeks before it decide whether it pays off.”
In-store foodservice 2026: the EHI study of 9 September 2026 reports turnover of 13.29 billion euros for 2025, 7.1 per cent more than in 2024 and three percentage points above the sector’s own forecast. The biggest expected growth driver is the to-go and snack business — precisely the segment with the smallest tickets.
“Growth in the snack business means one thing for the till: more transactions at a smaller ticket size. Anyone billing by percentage instead of per transaction is paying out their own success to the payment service provider.”
Wero at the point of sale: on 8 September 2026 the European Payments Initiative admitted the French payment service provider HiPay as a principal member. HiPay wants to roll out Wero via existing till systems, card terminals and Tap to Pay, starting in France. In Germany, Wero is so far only available in e-commerce.
“Wero will not be decided in marketing, it will be decided at the till. As long as no acquirer says which terminal it runs on in Germany, it is an announcement for the merchant, not a payment method.”
On 8 September 2026 Mastercard published the report A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments. The forecast: by 2030 more than one in ten online shoppers will regularly have an AI agent do the buying, over 300 million people worldwide. The concrete demand on merchants is unspectacular and still the real news: product information, advertising claims and policies have to become machine-readable and verifiable.
“The agent does not read glossy images. If product data, prices and return rules are not machine-readable, the merchant simply does not exist for it — that is not a topic for the future but a master data task for this quarter.”
An IDnow study published on 8 September 2026 shows: 52 per cent of Germans know the European identity wallet, 48 per cent abandon a process if verification becomes too cumbersome. 64 per cent would be more likely to use the wallet if individual details such as age could be confirmed without the rest of the data.
“For merchants, the identity wallet will not be decided on data protection, it will be decided on abandonment rates. Anyone who cuts an age check from three clicks to one earns money on it immediately.”
On 7 September 2026, Vertriebszeitung described nine typical mistakes in price negotiation. The arithmetic behind them is incorruptible: at a 30 per cent contribution margin, a price reduction of five per cent eats a sixth of the contribution margin — 20 per cent more volume would be needed just to be level again.
“Discount is the most expensive form of convenience in sales. Anyone who gives away five per cent gives away a sixth of their contribution margin at a normal margin, and needs a fifth more closes to make it back.”
On 7 September 2026, Revolut and Visa completed the first card payment in France triggered by an AI: a real Revolut card, a real merchant (Cleverbridge), authentication via Visa Payment Passkey instead of a PIN. The liability question in agent purchases is not answered by this — it has only just been asked.
“When an agent pays, the human disappears from the payment process, but not from the liability chain. Merchants should ask who carries the chargeback case before they let agents into the checkout.”
On 2 September 2026 Anthropic published open blueprints for shopping and merchant agents — without a payment function of its own. Deliberately left out: payment protocol, checkout and advertising layer. Visa, Mastercard, Accenture and Shopify are carrying the building blocks into their customer networks. What that means for merchant checkouts.
“The agent builds the basket, the till stays with the merchant — anyone who understands that now negotiates their checkout contracts differently from someone waiting for the next hype.”
A legal opinion by Thomas Weck, commissioned by Finanzwende Recherche, examines the competition law side of the digital euro for the first time. Result: permissible as a sovereign act, but the planned basic infrastructure is commercial activity.
“For merchants, the digital euro will not be decided by monetary policy but by two lines: what acceptance costs and who operates the infrastructure.”
Card payments in hospitality: a DSGV analysis of 70,364 Google Maps listings shows that 89 per cent of the restaurants that state a payment method accept cards. Around a quarter give no information at all, and in Ludwigshafen one in three venues that does state a method is cash-only.
“A quarter of restaurants list no payment method on Google and thereby give away exactly the information the guest is looking for outside the door.”
More than 200 companies gave Kienbaum information for its 2026 sales study. Transparency and motivation work; on strategic steering most pay systems fail: they pay for short-term revenue while the company has long since been measuring profitability and customer retention.
“Anyone who preaches contribution margin and pays for revenue gets revenue. The compensation model is the most honest statement of strategy a company makes; everything else is presentation.”
The payment service provider secupay now offers Mastercard’s Pay by Bank via Shopware, WooCommerce, JTL and its own API. The customer confirms the transfer in their own online banking, and the merchant receives a payment without the card networks.
“Account-based payment at checkout is not a replacement for the card, it is bargaining power: anyone who has a second rail alongside the card talks about fees from a different position.”
tgPAY: since 1 September 2026 the foodservice wholesaler Transgourmet has been selling its own card acceptance for hospitality, hotels and catering together with VR Payment. The announcement names no terms and conditions, but it does offer a savings calculator.
“When the food wholesaler suddenly sells card acceptance as well, the publican has to compare two prices, not just leaf through a catalogue.”
The combined payment volume of the two card schemes rose by nine per cent in euro terms in the second quarter of 2026, roughly double the growth of retail. Mastercard is also examining a sale of Vocalink and of the Danish Nets group.
“When card turnover grows twice as fast as retail, it is not consumption that is growing but the share the card schemes earn on every euro of consumption.”
In its current State of Sales study, Salesforce puts the share of non-selling time at 70 per cent: data maintenance, internal coordination, administration. At the same time, around half of German companies report that they cannot fill open sales positions.
“Anyone who wants to grow their sales force by 30 per cent does not need new people, they need to take the administration away from the ones they have.”
The UK Payment Systems Regulator found that the core fees of the card schemes have risen by at least 25 per cent since 2017 and cost merchants an extra 170 million pounds a year. It is now demanding auditable records for every pricing decision. The EU Commission has had its case open since 2024.
“The scheme fee is the only part of the card fee that no law caps and no merchant can negotiate; that is why it has risen by a quarter in ten years while interchange stayed capped.”
The Amsterdam payment service provider reports net revenue of 156 million euros for the first half year, is planning 350 million euros for expansion across Europe and is acquiring direct debit specialist GoCardless for 1.1 billion euros.
“With GoCardless, Mollie is buying direct debit, because in subscription business it is not the card that wins but the bank account; for merchants that means more choice and more negotiating power.”
The Danish payments company relies on reps who knock on the doors of bakeries and hairdressers. In 2025, revenue grew to 39 million euros with a loss of 70 million euros. For 2026, management plans 100 to 105 million in revenue and up to 150 million in losses.
“Flatpay proves that personal selling works in payments. It also proves that it costs 140 million euros in losses when the product behind it is just a terminal with a flat rate.”
The European banks’ payment solution is live in four countries, and more than 120 online merchants accept it. In October, the migration of iDEAL, the Dutch market leader, begins. Buyer protection will be phased in through to 2028.
“Wero will not be decided by its advertising budget. It will be decided by whether it is cheaper than PayPal at the merchant’s checkout. The iDEAL migration is the first real test.”
4.21 billion payments, 151.9 billion euros in turnover, 1.397 million terminals. Transactions are up four per cent, turnover only 0.8 per cent. For merchants that means more bookings for the same money.
“Four per cent more transactions on 0.8 per cent more turnover means every merchant on a fixed per-transaction fee pays more for the same business today than a year ago.”
After the trilogue agreement of 5 May 2026, formal adoption is expected in the summer or autumn. The PSR regulation will then apply around 21 months after publication, and the PSD3 directive must be transposed within 24 months. What changes for merchants.
“For banks PSD3 is a compliance project, for merchants it is a pricing question: whoever carries the fraud liability determines what the payment costs.”
The trial starts in the second half of 2027, runs for twelve months and tests payments in shops, in online stores and between private individuals. Five German applicants are on the list, among them Payone and Deutsche Bank.
“The digital euro will only matter at the terminal if it is cheaper for the merchant than the girocard; otherwise it stays a project for central banks.”
Net revenue of 1.3 billion euros, processed volume of 804 billion euros, plus the acquisitions of Talon.One and Orb. The Dutch payment service provider is rebuilding itself from acquirer into a commerce platform.
“Adyen no longer sells retailers the payment, it sells the customer relationship around it, and that is exactly where the classic payment network operators have to ask themselves what they offer beyond the terminal.”
The payment service provider is acquiring an AI router that distributes requests across more than 400 language models. The price is 5.4 times the valuation from May. Why a payment company is buying AI infrastructure, and what it means for the checkout.
“Stripe is not buying an AI company, Stripe is buying the till for the moment when it is no longer the human paying but their AI agent.”
Europe's largest terminal manufacturer is converting debt into equity, PIMCO leads the investor group, previous owner Apollo is leaving. What that means for merchants with Ingenico devices at the till.
“When the manufacturer behind the terminal restructures, the merchant does not feel it in the device, but in spare parts, in updates and in the price of the next generation.”