It's a discussion, but yes, one of the arguments is that allowing places to exclude non-Danes is undesirable from a public-policy perspective. It's currently not legal to explicitly exclude non-Danes: you cannot ask for ID cards and refuse to serve foreigners. This change would make it possible to do that de facto, with the Dankort being sort of the ID card. There is also a possibility it would violate Denmark's commitments to the EU, requiring it to ensure equal treatment of EU citizens in commerce.
Well, the EU should probably do something about these regional card services. Ideally they should be forced to offer processing to all merchants in the EU. Here in Germany, they have EC and girocard, both of which aren't very foreigner-friendly. Expect foreign Visa cards to only work in the more commercial half of shops that take cards - maybe a third of all places you may want to shop.
I doubt Neelie Kroes is listening, but if she is, this is the kind of stuff that needs to go.
Comments
It's a discussion, but yes, one of the arguments is that allowing places to exclude non-Danes is undesirable from a public-policy perspective. It's currently not legal to explicitly exclude non-Danes: you cannot ask for ID cards and refuse to serve foreigners. This change would make it possible to do that de facto, with the Dankort being sort of the ID card. There is also a possibility it would violate Denmark's commitments to the EU, requiring it to ensure equal treatment of EU citizens in commerce.
Well, the EU should probably do something about these regional card services. Ideally they should be forced to offer processing to all merchants in the EU. Here in Germany, they have EC and girocard, both of which aren't very foreigner-friendly. Expect foreign Visa cards to only work in the more commercial half of shops that take cards - maybe a third of all places you may want to shop.
I doubt Neelie Kroes is listening, but if she is, this is the kind of stuff that needs to go.