Italy is lobbying to exempt merchants from fees on digital euro transactions below €10, a move designed to make the European Central Bank’s planned CBDC palatable to the small businesses that form the backbone of Europe’s third-largest economy.
The proposal lands as final trilogue negotiations between the European Parliament, Council, and Commission are underway in Brussels over the digital euro’s regulatory framework.
The fee problem that won’t go away
Card payment fees in Italy currently average around 0.57% per transaction, or roughly €0.28. That might sound trivial until you’re a tobacconist processing hundreds of small purchases a day.
Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti made the case in December 2025 that digital euro acceptance costs need to undercut what merchants currently pay for card transactions.
Forza Italia MEPs have gone further in the European Parliament, proposing amendments that would eliminate merchant and inter-payment-service-provider commissions entirely on low-value retail transactions for a transitional window of three years after launch.
The Bank of Italy is also running its own analysis on fee-capping strategies built around what it calls a “no worse off” principle. Translation: merchants shouldn’t end up paying more to accept digital euros than they do for comparable existing payment methods.
What the digital euro actually looks like
The digital euro is the ECB’s attempt to build a government-issued digital payment option that can compete with private-sector solutions while preserving some of the properties of physical cash. It’s meant to complement banknotes, not replace them, and privacy protections are a central design pillar.
The project remains in development, with an anticipated launch window between 2028 and 2029 following pilot testing. The ECB has estimated setup costs at approximately €1.3 billion, with annual operating expenses of around €320 million kicking in from roughly 2029.
One notable feature under discussion: offline payments, where two devices could exchange digital euros without an internet connection, might be entirely fee-free.
Italy’s parallel push on digital payments
Satispay, the Italian mobile payment platform, plans to offer zero fees on transactions under €10 starting in September 2026. That timeline would place it roughly two to three years ahead of the digital euro’s expected launch.