Overview
- Polarzauber at Zurich’s main station will run 20 Nov–24 Dec with 120 stalls accepting only cards or mobile payments, and vendors risk a CHF 500 penalty if they take cash.
- SBB and the City of Zurich back the organizer’s decision, which is framed as standard for events of this scale and justified on security and operational grounds.
- Some stallholders warn of lost sales—especially for child customers—and object to a new revenue‑sharing model with the organizer in addition to stand fees.
- Other Swiss markets in Bern, Lucerne and Winterthur promote cashless payments as recommendations rather than strict bans, and Swiss law permits pre‑announced cash refusal, with Geneva a noted exception.
- Germany’s Nationales Bargeldforum, led by the Bundesbank, launched ‘Klar, auch bar!’ stickers to signal cash acceptance and reported crisis‑exercise findings after simulating Visa/Mastercard outages and cash runs.