Italy Proposes Near-Zero Fees for Digital Euro Payments Under €10

TL;DR:

• Italy’s delegation proposed limiting merchant fees for digital euro transactions under €10 to a maximum of €0.02 or setting them to zero.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) reported that small businesses face processing costs 3 to 4 times higher than large chains, using this disparity as an argument for state intervention.
• The initiative was introduced in Brussels within the tripartite negotiations on the legal framework for this digital currency issued by the ECB.

Within the framework of the community regulatory talks held in Brussels in early September, the government of Italy presented a formal initiative to exempt retail payments with the digital euro below €10 from fees. This measure, presented under the narrative of financial relief for merchants, constitutes a new state attempt to intervene in market mechanisms to accelerate the adoption of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The proposal contemplates establishing a maximum cap of €0.02 per transaction or a total fee waiver for low-value transactions. European diplomats confirmed that the Italian delegation seeks to mitigate the financial burden assumed by independent points of sale. However, this state maneuver conceals the true nature of the digital euro: a system designed and controlled by the ECB that is intrinsically opposed to the principles of financial freedom that define Bitcoin and the rest of the original cryptocurrencies.

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