Payments

The federal German government intends to amend data protection law. The legislative proposal includes tightening creditworthiness checks, which could have a negative impact on Klarna and other payment service providers. They fear they may no longer be able to conduct automatic credit checks.

eBay sellers in Germany can no longer accept cash payments from customers when they pick up their orders. Click & collect is still available, but payments must be made through the "existing standard payment processing”.

Dutch B2B payments provider Sprinque is announcing its launch in Germany and Spain with new offices in those countries. The company wants to eventually offer its payments platform to the complete European market.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is experiencing significant growth in Germany, especially among young consumers. Schufa has reported a 30 percent increase in BNPL usage in just one year. The credit agency warns about the risks associated with deferred payments.

Swedish fintech Klarna now has more than 100 million European users on its platform. It has also achieved a 14 percent year-on-year GMV growth in the second quarter in Europe. Within the United Kingdom, the GMV growth was even higher, 26 percent.

Zalando has partnered with Savrr, a relatively unknown start-up until recently. Together, they offer German Zalando customers a new service: 'save now buy later', the counterpart of 'buy now pay later'.

Last year, more than 1.2 billion payments in the Netherlands were fulfilled through iDeal, the popular local payment method. This is an increase of 7.9 percent compared to 2021. The online payment method shows strong growth, despite a decrease of 5 percent in ecommerce purchases within the country.

PayPal is offering passkeys outside of its US home market for the first time. The user-friendly login feature becomes available in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Amazon is convinced of the added value of the digital euro, which the European Central Bank (ECB) aims to introduce. The company has built a prototype for its application in ecommerce payments.

For years, purchasing on account was the most popular payment method in Germany for online shoppers. However, in 2022, PayPal took over that place. At least 29.6 percent of online purchases were paid for with this payment method.

Dutch payment service iDeal has been acquired by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a collaboration of European banks. Payconiq, technology provider of iDeal and Belgian payment platform Bancontact, has also been taken over. iDeal is to form the basis of a Europe-wide payment system, according to EPI.

Online payment provider Paypal is under investigation by the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) in Germany. The company has allegedly hindered market and price competition in its terms and conditions, the German watchdog says.

The Dutch government wants online liquor stores to stop offering ‘buy now, pay later’ as a payment method. If they do not find alternative payment methods, the government will come up with legal measures. The payment method lowers the threshold to buy alcohol.

Startup JUST, which enables a one-click checkout for online stores, raised 3 million euros in seed capital. The solution can increase conversion by nearly 20 percent, according to the company. The one-click checkout landscape is highly competitive.

Swedish fintech Klarna wants to raise 1 billion dollars (over 900 million euros) from investors. The company is the European market leader for ‘buy now, pay later’ services. However, it has been valued 30 percent lower and has since announced layoffs.