Part of: Coffeeshops and banking
What the loss of Worldline as card acquirer means, and how coffeeshops find an alternative.
Worldline withdraws as card acquirer
After Worldline decided to end its services to coffeeshops, a large part of the sector lost its card acquirer within a short period. The bottleneck therefore no longer concerns only cash and value transport, but also the last well-functioning, traceable payment stream: card payments at the counter.
What it means in practice
- Termination of the acquiring contract at short notice.
- A very limited number of alternative acquirers that accept coffeeshops.
- A risk that operators fall back on cash only — precisely what the Wwft objectives seek to avoid.
What we are doing
We monitor this dossier actively, collect members' experiences and support operators in finding an alternative acquirer. The signals we gather feed into our conversations with banks, payment service providers and the ministry.
Full background, timeline and analysis are available in the dossier Worldline and coffeeshops. Received a termination letter? Members find instructions and an e-mail template on the page Worldline — steps for members.