Following yesterday’s negotiations in the European Parliament, we are pleased to see S&D group’s support for the principle that merchants must be better off regarding the digital euro fee (compensation) model, as shown in their press statement.
This is what the merchant payments coalition, have argued for since September last year. See our position paper Digital Euro: make it work for merchants under 1. compensation model.
The position of the Council and some political groups on merchants being ‘no worse off’ does not reflect the unique nature of the digital euro as public money with mandatory acceptance, and the absence of credit risk for the private banks.
At the same time, we continue to push for the digital euro fee to be capped as a flat 4ct fee for transactions of 40 euro and above.
We call on the technical discussions to cement the principle of better off in the final text of the Regulation and look forward to working with the political groups to complete the negotiations.
Read the Merchant Payments Coalition Europe statement here.