3 ms·

Accepting cards from US-controlled schemes is not an issue at all. The geopolitical issue is not having any alternative, and these US schemes being the only way

by lxgr 4mo ago

Accepting cards from US-controlled schemes is not an issue at all. The geopolitical issue is not having any alternative, and these US schemes being the only way to pay even in domestic transactions. Almost nobody considered this a problem until a few years ago, but the relevant EU stakeholders got pretty rattled recently [1], and my prediction is that this particular bell can't be un-rung. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/18/international-criminal-court-icc-judges-trump-sanctions https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/18/international-cr...

graemep 4mo ago
They are aware of it, but there is so much US dependency that its very difficult to reverse course let along unto what has been done. The EU's age verification app will only work on Google or Apple controlled phones. A lot of payments are done on phones. A lot of other things depend on phones too - my local bus company (in the UK) requires its mobile app for some types of tickets. I have had to use phone based ID verification already.
ericmay 4mo ago
Well it doesn’t matter whether it’s un-rung. Europe can develop payments tech, folks visiting continue to operate like they normally do. The US is increasingly accepting payment mechanisms and cards from other providers too. Continued competition is good here all else being close to equal. Each nation or economic block or alliance or whatever will have to decide which kinds of products and services they’ll want to protect or build in-house. While the EU lambasted the United States when it began taking measures to do what the EU is doing now, it’s encouraging to see the EU change course and start to protect its industries, though who knows how effective that will be. China is looming large over the EU, Germany in particular.

3 ms·

Accepting cards from US-controlled schemes is not an issue at all. The geopolitical issue is not having any alternative, and these US schemes being the only way

by lxgr 4mo ago

graemep 4mo ago
They are aware of it, but there is so much US dependency that its very difficult to reverse course let along unto what has been done. The EU's age verification app will only work on Google or Apple controlled phones. A lot of payments are done on phones. A lot of other things depend on phones too - my local bus company (in the UK) requires its mobile app for some types of tickets. I have had to use phone based ID verification already.
ericmay 4mo ago
Well it doesn’t matter whether it’s un-rung. Europe can develop payments tech, folks visiting continue to operate like they normally do. The US is increasingly accepting payment mechanisms and cards from other providers too. Continued competition is good here all else being close to equal. Each nation or economic block or alliance or whatever will have to decide which kinds of products and services they’ll want to protect or build in-house. While the EU lambasted the United States when it began taking measures to do what the EU is doing now, it’s encouraging to see the EU change course and start to protect its industries, though who knows how effective that will be. China is looming large over the EU, Germany in particular.