Ruling “could prevent governments from introducing payment cards”

To avoid additional bureaucracy, the states should create criteria for examining individual cases, Marc Elxnat, representative of the Association of Cities and Municipalities, told the “Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland (RND)”.

“From a municipal perspective, it is important that states develop criteria to determine how the amount of cash should be determined in certain special situations,” Elxnat told RND. Such a catalogue of criteria could speed up testing while taking into account the individual situation. “If an individual case assessment is actually required in each case and the situation changes, this could entail a significant additional staff effort.”

The court had declared a general cash limit for payment cards illegal

The court had declared the fixed cash limit for payment cards illegal. Pro Asyl, as one of the plaintiffs, sees its criticism confirmed: “The payment card was an instrument of intimidation from the beginning and is the product of a populist debate,” Wiebke Judith, spokeswoman for Pro Asyl’s legal policy, told RND. With the court’s ruling, the states are now confronted with far-reaching consequences. “This turns the payment card, which was sold as a bureaucratic relief, into a bureaucratic monster,” says Judith. “This could deter local governments and prevent them from introducing the payment card.”