Digital euro compensation model not needed and contradicts proposed regulation

‘A euro is a euro’ applies to consumers and merchants  

Key messages 

1. No compensation model needed: the digital euro and cash are public goods, using them should be at no cost to consumers and merchants. 
2. A compensation model makes the digital euro more complex and costly than needed. 
3. If nevertheless a compensation model is decided, the Merchant Service Charge must be 0,05% with a cap of 2 cent per transaction. 
4. A higher Merchant Service Charge will jeopardise adoption by merchants and will lead to higher consumer prices and less competition and innovation. 
5. Also, the recommendations of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) Special Report on price interventions must be applied to the digital euro compensation model. 

Merchants recognise the potential of the digital euro to reduce the average cost of payments, which has only gone up in recent years, and to boost competition and innovation. However, this potential can only be realised if the cost of acceptance is kept at zero or as close to zero as possible and the existing infrastructure can be reused.  

The current direction of the conversation on the digital euro compensation model is alarming, as it harms the European economy, makes the digital euro unnecessarily complex and expensive and is not in line with the core concept of legal tender as defined in the proposed legislation.   

The co-legislators should carefully consider our position against a compensation model in the regulation to enable a digital euro.