Germany Tagesschau
Federal Cartel Office criticizes PayPal's fee policy
If you buy something with PayPal, you don't have to pay any fees. Online retailers, on the other hand, may incur excessive costs. From the Federal Cartel Office's perspective, this could put cheaper payment providers at a disadvantage
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Trading on the Internet Does PayPal hinder competition among payment services? As of: November 11, 2026 • 1:34 p.m
If you buy something with PayPal, you don't have to pay any fees. Online retailers, on the other hand, may incur excessive costs. From the Federal Cartel Office's perspective, this could put cheaper payment providers at a disadvantage.
According to the Federal Cartel Office's assessment, the US company PayPal is suspected of hindering competition between different payment service providers on the Internet. This emerges from a communication from the competition authorities.
The Bonn authority's accusation relates to pricing in online retail. Merchants usually offer several payment methods or different payment service providers that consumers can choose from.
According to the Cartel Office, since 2018, PayPal has prohibited retailers from specifically passing on the costs of payment processing to customers in the form of a separate fee.
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Instead, in practice the costs are apparently passed on to all customers. The problem: PayPal is now not only considered one of the most popular payment service providers online, but according to the Cartel Office it is also sometimes more expensive than other providers. The antitrust watchdogs said: "According to the Federal Cartel Office's findings to date, PayPal charges above-average fees compared to other payment methods."
Cartel Office chief Andreas Mundt also pointed out the provider's very strong market position: "PayPal is a natural payment method for many people when shopping online. It is therefore difficult for many retailers to do without PayPal."
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From the perspective of competition watchdogs, the ban on directly passing on costs to individual PayPal customers could disadvantage other, cheaper payment providers. “If merchants cannot take the different costs of payment methods into account in their pricing, this could harm competition between payment services,” said Mundt. “Other, cheaper providers would then have a harder time asserting themselves against PayPal.”
This then has consequences for consumers, who could face higher costs. However, a spokesman for the US payment service provider said: "PayPal does not share the Federal Cartel Office's preliminary assessment."
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The authority could now insist that PayPal stop the practice. It could also skim off an economic advantage that was obtained through a violation of antitrust law. However, PayPal first has the opportunity to comment on the preliminary assessment.
PayPal is the most widely used service provider for online payments in Germany. According to its own information, the company has 35 million active customer accounts in this country. Other well-known providers include Klarna and Apple Pay.
This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | Federal Cartel Office considers PayPal to be anti-competitive | 11/11/2026 | 11.49 a.m.RBB24 Inforadio | News | 11/11/2026 | 1:03 p.m