Re:WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by ...
by pgeorgi on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @06:12PM
(#15974751)
ATM withdrawal typically is free (at the same banking group).
The merchant fees are part of the total cost, so lower fees provide a competitive edge to the merchant. (the listed price also contains VAT, so you pay what's on the sticker, not like in the US)
Aldi (a discount grocery chain) didn't accept _any_ cards for a long time to avoid these extra costs.
In short: the German market situation is rigged in favor of cash, which is "free", which is hard to compete with when you're selling credit card services for a living.
I've also noticed that not many people pay contactless, even when the terminals support it... and the cashiers tend to assume that the card is not contactless for some reason.