Mandatory card acceptance in Germany: what merchants really must do — and what is only planned

The short answer

Mandatory card acceptance does not apply in Germany today: as at 20 October 2026 there is no law and no adopted bill, only key points from the Federal Ministry of Finance which were reported on 11 September 2026. What is planned is a cabinet decision still in 2026 and entry into force in 2027 — anyone being asked to sign a terminal contract today by reference to “the obligation” is being pushed to sign on the basis of an intention, not a legal position.

From when is card payment mandatory in Germany?

The question is currently being answered wrongly twice over, because two projects of the same ministry are being mixed up: the obligation to offer a digital payment option, and the obligation to run an electronic till. Only the second has been adopted by cabinet.

Date	Step	Consequence for the business
today	no obligation to accept cards	cash only is permitted
11 Sep 2026	key points from the Federal Ministry of Finance (reports by dpa and the trade press)	none yet, inter-ministerial coordination under way
23 Sep 2026	cabinet adopts the Second Cash Register Act	concerns till and receipt, not cards
by end of 2026 (planned)	cabinet decision on the digital payment option	only then is it settled who is covered
2027 (planned)	acceptance obligation enters into force	mandatory, provided Bundestag and Bundesrat agree
1 Jan 2028	mandatory electronic till from 100,000 euros annual turnover (government bill)	till, regardless of the card question

According to the federal government, the cabinet decision of 23 September contains mandatory tills for businesses above 100,000 euros annual turnover from 2028, an exemption below 12,000 euros of cash turnover and the digital receipt via QR code, link or customer account (Bundesregierung, 23 September 2026). There is no rule on card acceptance in it. So anyone who hears “the cabinet has adopted mandatory card payment” is hearing a mix-up. For the till side, see the guide on the cash register security regulation and TSE.

What applies today

No merchant is obliged to accept cards. Anyone who wants to may take cash only. Two rules nevertheless already apply, and they are regularly confused:

Section 270a BGB renders ineffective any agreement under which a customer is to pay a charge for using girocard, regulated consumer debit and credit cards, SEPA credit transfer or SEPA direct debit. The 50-cent card surcharge is therefore not enforceable in consumer business. Corporate cards and three-party systems such as American Express are exempt — but section 312a(4) BGB applies there, permitting a surcharge only where a common free-of-charge alternative exists and the surcharge does not exceed actual costs.

The minimum amount is something different from a charge: the business refuses the payment method instead of making it more expensive. In statutory terms that has not been conclusively decided, and there is no ruling from the highest courts. What binds in practice is the acceptance contract, because the card schemes' rulebooks require unconditional acceptance. That is enforced by the acquirer, not by an authority. Anyone sticking “cards from 10 euros” on the till today is breaching their contract rather than a law.

What the key points envisage

Point	Key-points status 11 September 2026	Current legal position
Digital payment option alongside cash	mandatory everywhere payment is made on site	no obligation
Choice of scheme	the business chooses, at least one European scheme	free decision
Minimum turnover thresholds	ruled out	contractually binding, statutorily unsettled
Additional charge for the customer	ruled out	section 270a BGB, with exceptions
Exemptions	amateur and non-profit clubs, street festivals, flea markets	not applicable
Hardship cases	under examination	open
Sanctions	not named	none

Acceptance must not be made dependent on “turnover thresholds”, the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung quotes from the key points (11 September 2026). What today only the card contract requires would thereby become law. There has so far been no press release of the ministry's own; the factual position is provisional until the cabinet decision.

Should card payment become mandatory? Who is for it, who against

The ministry justifies the plan with combating “tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crime” (quoted by Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, 11 September 2026), not with customer convenience. The associations stand against it: the retail association HDE rejected the obligation on 16 September because, by its own account, both are already possible at 99 per cent of retail tills, and demanded the right to pass card fees on to customers should the obligation come (report on the HDE). The self-employed association ESD argued on 13 September that the market will manage the change itself (report on the ESD). On the customer side, a YouGov survey of 14 September shows that 72 per cent expect a cashless payment option in restaurants (report on YouGov). The HDE demand for passing fees on would require an amendment of section 270a BGB — that is in none of the papers known so far.

The sum that decides 2027

For most businesses the obligation is a formality. According to the Bundesbank study, 55 per cent of recorded purchases were already paid cashlessly in 2025 (Bundesbank, 17 June 2026), and the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft reported around 1.397 million active girocard terminals for the first half of 2026 (25 August 2026). It gets expensive where the ticket is small — and those are precisely the businesses that lose their protective instrument with the minimum amount.

Model calculation, girocard, two widespread pricing models: A at 9 cents per transaction plus 0.25 per cent, B as a flat rate of 1.39 per cent with no fixed fee. The percentages are orders of magnitude from public provider and comparison sources, not the terms of any particular contract.

Ticket size	Model A (9 ct + 0.25 %)	As a percentage	Model B (1.39 %)
€1.80 bread roll	€0.095	5.3 %	€0.025
€3.50 coffee	€0.099	2.8 %	€0.049
€7.90	€0.110	1.4 %	€0.110
€12.00	€0.120	1.0 %	€0.167
€36.12 (average girocard ticket, H1 2026)	€0.180	0.5 %	€0.502

The break-even is at a ticket size of around 7.90 euros. Below it the pure percentage wins, above it the fixed fee. A bakery with 300 tickets a day at 3.50 euros and 300 trading days pays around 8,890 euros a year on model A and around 4,380 euros on model B — a difference of about 4,500 euros, purely from the choice of model. The assumptions are freely chosen; the result holds qualitatively for any small-ticket business. The individual cost blocks are broken down in the guide to card payment fees.

What the European scheme means in practice

The clause “at least one European scheme” is favourable for merchants: girocard carries low charges at the point of sale, because interchange on consumer debit cards is capped at 0.2 per cent. Wero, by contrast, is not a card but an instant bank transfer; the interchange cap does not apply to it, and no merchant price for Wero at the terminal has been published in Germany yet (see Wero for merchants). Affected would be terminals that have only international schemes enabled, and SoftPOS or wallet solutions without girocard. That is usually an activation, not a new purchase — one you should have confirmed in writing before you pay for it.

Does a shop have to accept cards – and what does the obligation mean for me as a customer?

Today no shop in Germany has to accept cards, and no customer has to pay digitally – both remain voluntary. The obligation planned from 2027 is addressed to the business, not to the customer, and does not abolish cash.

Three points matter for consumers. First: to date a shop may refuse card payment and insist on cash. Euro notes are the only unrestricted legal tender (section 14(1), second sentence, BBankG), but a business may limit acceptance in advance by a notice – so “cash only” is just as permissible as “card only”. Second: if the obligation came in 2027, the business would have to offer at least one digital scheme alongside cash. The customer then gains the choice and loses nothing, because no surcharge may be charged for paying by card (section 270a BGB). Third, and this is the most common mix-up: the obligation forces no one to use a card and does not end cash. Anyone who wants to pay cash can still do so; the digital euro, too, is planned as a complement to cash, not a replacement.

In macroeconomic terms the Ministry of Finance justifies the obligation with curbing tax evasion and money laundering, not with customer convenience. For most people's daily lives little changes – in 2025, 55 per cent of recorded purchases were already cashless (Bundesbank, 17 June 2026). The obligation would be felt mainly where cards are not yet taken today: at the snack stand, the weekly market, the small tradesperson. It is precisely those businesses that bear the cost – and precisely why it is not the obligation that decides the burden, but the contract behind it.

What does Pedram Dadgar say about mandatory card acceptance?

I sell card terminals and still consider the obligation the lesser issue. The market introduced it long ago: the customer without cash leaves, and the second time round they do not come back. What bothers me is the use the sales trade makes of this paper. For a year and a half, bakeries and hairdressers have been sold on a law that does not exist, and since 23 September the mix-up with mandatory tills has been added. Anyone signing under time pressure signs a 48-month term and a pricing model that does not fit their average ticket — and because section 270a BGB prohibits passing it on, every cent of it comes out of the margin.

To the legislator I would say: if the state compels businesses to accept cards, then full, itemised disclosure of costs before the contract is signed belongs in the same law. And to the associations: the ban on minimum amounts is the point at which they should be doing the sums, not the obligation itself. Anyone going into negotiations in 2027 without their own figures pays for the obligation twice.

What to do now

1. Write down two figures: average ticket size and number of tickets per day. Without them no offer can be assessed.
2. Determine the share of tickets under five euros — it decides whether a flat rate or a fixed fee plus percentage is cheaper.
3. Check which schemes the existing terminal really accepts, girocard and wallets included, and have the activation confirmed in writing.
4. Convert offers into total costs per 1,000 euros of turnover, separately for girocard and international cards, instead of comparing monthly rentals.
5. Look up the term and notice period of the existing contract (terminating a card terminal contract) before demand picks up in 2027.
6. Check mandatory tills 2028 and the card question separately, but when buying a new till, plan the connection to the terminal at the same time.
7. No signature on the day of the visit, and none whose justification is “mandatory from 2027”. Nothing is binding until the cabinet decision.