EUDI wallet: Bundestag passes the Digital Identities Act

What the Bundestag decided on 15 October

On 15 October 2026 the Bundestag passed the Digital Identities Act (DIdG, printed paper 21/7408) at third reading in the version amended by the committee, with the votes of the CDU/CSU and SPD against the AfD, Greens and Left. The act creates the framework for the German EUDI wallet “d-you”, which is set to launch on 2 January 2027 — voluntary, free of charge and as the first electronic identification means at the “high” assurance level for mobile devices. With it, citizens are to prove their identity, store documents, sign with qualified electronic signatures and gain easier access to banking and payment services, including across EU borders. The EU requires every member state to provide a wallet by 24 December 2026. The committee added changes: the online ID function applies from age 13, the deadline for attribute attestations drops from 24 to 12 months, and users may decline the biometric photo. What strong customer authentication requires in online retail today, and where exemptions apply, is set out in the guide to 3-D Secure and SCA.

Which merchants the wallet affects at the checkout

The first to feel it are online merchants with verification duties: shops for age-restricted goods that currently rely on ID uploads or video identification, and providers that must establish identity or signing authority when a contract is concluded. In B2B onboarding and account opening, too, a wallet credential replaces the form-filling journey. For the payment itself nothing changes in the short term — the wallet supplies the identity, not the payment method. The sectors affected are precisely those where identity checking is today the most expensive step in the checkout.

Why this decides abandonment rates, not citizen convenience

The political dispute was about the pseudonym function and data protection; the value for retail lies elsewhere. Every identity check that today consists of five steps — photograph the ID, upload it, wait, confirm, return to the shop — is a risk of abandonment. A wallet that releases age or address at the touch of a button cuts that to one step. “Anyone who has to verify age, address or signing authority online gains no closeness to the authorities from the wallet, but a lower abandonment rate — and that is the number that counts at the checkout.” — Pedram Dadgar, Strategic Consultant at SENZA.

The qualification belongs with it: a law that has been passed is not yet a working interface. The 2 January 2027 start is planned as a first stage, the statutory pseudonym function is to follow only afterwards, and the technical specs for integration are not part of the act. Merchants who want to build identity checking into the checkout need the concrete integration from the wallet provider and the service provider — and that comes after the launch, not with it.

What to do now

1. Identify where in the checkout or onboarding an identity, age or authority check runs today, and how high the abandonment rate is there.
2. Ask your payment and checkout service provider whether and when an EUDI wallet connection is planned; without an interface the wallet has no effect for the shop.
3. Watch the registration requirement for service providers — anyone wanting to accept the wallet will probably have to register before querying data.