In Brief: A recent position paper from the hospitality sector details the prerequisites for incorporating the digital Euro into its financial systems, highlighting the industry’s move towards digitalization.
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Hospitality Sector Position Paper Outlines Conditions for Digital Euro Adoption – Image Credit HOTREC
A position paper released on 17 March 2026 outlines recommendations for implementing the Digital Euro in the hospitality sector, focusing on payment choice, cost structure, and operational integration.
The position paper addresses the payment environment in the hospitality sector, including hotels, restaurants, and cafés that process numerous daily transactions, many of which are low-value purchases. The sector is primarily composed of small and medium-sized enterprises, many of them family-run, which often face card acceptance fees three to four times higher than those paid by major retailers.
The document notes the dominance of non-EU providers in the European payments market and states that the Digital Euro could serve as a European public alternative for digital payments. It emphasizes that the economic sustainability of the Digital Euro for merchants is essential for its success in the sector.
Recommendations include that the Digital Euro should complement, not replace, cash, allowing businesses to offer payment options that reflect customer preferences and national payment habits.
The paper recommends that the Digital Euro should be structurally less expensive than existing private payment solutions. It states that if acceptance costs mirror current card fees, businesses may only formally accept the Digital Euro without actively promoting its use.
A temporary EU-wide zero-fee regime for low-value Digital Euro transactions at physical points of sale during the launch phase is proposed. This measure is intended to encourage early merchant adoption, make the Digital Euro attractive for daily payments, and reduce reliance on non-EU payment providers.
For the long term, the paper proposes a simple and predictable fee model for the Digital Euro, including a maximum merchant service charge of 0.1% per online transaction, an absolute cap of €0.04 per transaction, and no merchant service charge for offline payments. This model is intended to ensure lower and more predictable acceptance costs for merchants across the euro area.
The position paper also recommends integrated online and offline functionality to maintain payment continuity during connectivity issues, flexible merchant holdings with batch settlements of up to 48 hours, and seamless integration with existing payment systems.
The full position paper, titled “Making the Digital Euro Work for Hospitality,” is available for further details.
