Mandatory card acceptance in 2026: does Germany already have it?
Mandatory card acceptance in 2026: no, Germany has no law and no draft bill obliging merchants to accept cards. The coalition agreement only states the intention to offer a digital payment option alongside cash. What applies today, which sectors would be affected and what merchants should do regardless.
What happened
Ever since the 2025 coalition agreement, “mandatory card acceptance” has been haunting customer conversations, association circulars and vendor advertising. As things stand today, 5 September 2026: there is no law, no ministerial draft and no timetable. The coalition agreement merely formulates the intention that businesses should in future offer at least one digital payment option alongside cash. In September 2025 the federal government confirmed, in response to a parliamentary question, that proposals are only being developed internally, without a date and without sanctions. Nothing has changed on that in the past twelve months.
Who it affects
Every business with a till that still takes cash only: bakeries, kiosks, market stalls, tradespeople selling directly, small hospitality. And every provider advertising with “compulsory from 2026”, because that is simply false.
Assessment
The debate about an obligation distracts from the actual point. The figures from the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (German Banking Industry Committee) published on 25 August show 1.397 million active girocard terminals, eleven per cent more than a year earlier, and 92 per cent contactless payments in June. The market has introduced the obligation without the legislator. A business that does not take cards does not lose a court case, it loses revenue: the customer standing at the till without cash, and the one who never walks in at all.
What I advise merchants therefore has nothing to do with the law. It has to do with margin. Anyone introducing a terminal now should not sign the first contract a sales rep holds out with the argument “soon compulsory”. The obligation is a sales argument used by providers, not a legal framework.
What to do now
- Do not sign a contract under time pressure. Anyone arguing “compulsory from 2026” has either not done their research or is deliberately selling on false information.
- Request all cost components in writing: merchant discount rate per card type, per-transaction fee, terminal rental, service flat rate, contract term, notice period.
- Know your own average ticket size. With small baskets it is the fixed per-transaction fee that determines the cost, not the percentage rate.