Trouble with the landlord

16 beers paid for individually with a card: police operation

It is not known whether the guest was able to finish his last order. However, he was escorted out of the restaurant by the police.

(Bild: dpa/Andreas Gebert)

Paying with an ATM card is becoming increasingly popular in pubs: a Latvian tourist had apparently developed too much affection for his card - and got himself into trouble with the landlord and the police.

The reason for the trouble: although the 21-year-old man from Latvia was apparently very hard-drinking, he paid for 16 glasses of beer individually with his ATM card in a Bavarian restaurant. However, this annoyed the landlord in Mamming, in the district of Dingolfing-Landau, as reported by Bayrischer Rundfunk - he called the police for help.

Individual payments cost the landlord more
He finally described his annoyance to the officers on site, saying that he had to pay transaction fees for card payments - 20 cents per booking. Splitting the many orders was therefore much more expensive for him than if the guest had only paid once.

Guest "uncooperative and unruly"
 When asked about this, the guest, who was a heavy drinker, was not particularly understanding. He was "uncooperative and unruly", the "Passauer Neue Presse" quoted the officials as saying. After all, card payments are not only common in Latvia, even for small amounts, but also expressly desired, he defended himself.

Banned from the premises, but no criminal offense
 In addition, there were communication problems between the man and the police, so he was simply escorted out of the restaurant and banned from the premises. However, it is emphasized that he did not commit a crime.

In Germany, stores and restaurants are generally free to decide whether and what type of card payment they accept. There are also no regulations governing the amount above which they accept card payments. There is no obligation to accept card payments.

However, there is already a high degree of digitalization in the everyday life of Latvians - in addition to payments by card, which are a matter of course, it is also possible to make official transactions digitally without any problems, and ID cards can also be retrieved in this way.