Pavel Vyhnánek (Prague sebo): In Germany, paying by card is often a problem
photo: Vít Hassan for PrahaIN.cz/Pavel Vyhnánek
POLITICS IN OWN WORDS Deputy Mayor m of Prague and representatives of Prague 7 for Prague on their Facebook on August 4 to pay by card in shops
You may be surprised, but there is one financial indicator in which we leave Germany far behind: the number of card payments per citizen! While the average Czech pays with a card 140 times a year, the average German only 90 times. To this day, it still manages to surprise me how much of a problem paying by card can sometimes be in Germany.
Along with Romania and Bulgaria, Italy appears at the bottom of the European statistics with these 60 transactions. But it faced this head on and introduced a LEGAL OBLIGATION to accept card payments for all merchants and service providers. Those who do not allow card payment in Italy are exposed to the risk of a penalty of EUR 30 plus 4% of the value of the entire transaction from this July.
When I recently played around with the idea of mandatory card acceptance, I received criticism from the “right” because it would limit business freedom, the free hand of the market and so on. No, please try to guess which governments are behind the Italian measures we are talking about. You, led first by Mario Monti and later by Mario Draghi!
Both official prime ministers, both pan-European recognized economists, whom probably no one suspects of excessively left-wing or anti-market sentiments. But both of them understood that the free hand of the market fails where the natural appetite of the trader sets in not to admit all the revenue of the tax office. And that a similar intervention from above can only be done by the competition because it sets the same conditions for all players on the market.
I see it the same way. And I even know when the Czechia will introduce the same measures. In 2033. Why? Just. Italy introduced a ban on smoking in restaurants in 2005. At that time, we still thought it was unmarketable. However, we changed our opinion in 2016, and since then most of the company has introduced smoking in restaurants. It will be the same with the cards, you’ll see.