Meal vouchers in Europe

Meal vouchers are employer-funded prepaid cards that employees use to pay for eligible goods and services, such as food, beverages, and eco-friendly products. Unlike gift cards, meal vouchers are a government-regulated employee benefit. Depending on the country, there can be different tax exemptions, regulations with regard to eligible products, and spending limits.

In this part of the documentation we provide information about meal vouchers in various European countries, activation of those meal vouchers, and implementation best practices.

Requirements

Before you begin, check if the following applies to you.

Meal vouchers compared to gift cards

Meal vouchers and gift cards are both stored-value cards. In theory, you can use the same API requests to check a card balance, process a payment, and handle partial payments or partial authorizations. However, for ecommerce integrations, the current recommendation is to accept ONLY meal vouchers or ONLY gift cards. Accepting both together adds too much complexity to your integration. We are working on a resolution to this issue.

An important difference between gift cards and meal vouchers is that you can accept meal vouchers only for product categories that national regulations allow. There are different rules for different voucher types, and these rules are enforced by the issuer of the voucher. The issuer declines the meal voucher payment if your merchant ID (MID) is not registered with the issuer or your merchant category code (MCC) does not match the eligible product categories. Make sure you follow each country's registration process to maximize acceptance of meal voucher payments across countries.

Supported brands

Adyen supports the meal voucher brands listed in the table below.

The available sales channels, network, and processing model vary by country. When processing "non-scheme vouchers", Adyen routes the meal voucher transactions to the specific voucher network. When processing "scheme vouchers", Adyen routes the transactions over the applicable global card scheme network. This distinction determines the options you have for handling split tenders.

Belgium

Belgium has a regulated framework for digital vouchers. Royal Decrees define the merchant sectors where each voucher type can be used. The following voucher types are available:

• Meal vouchers: food and ready-to-eat products.
• Eco-cheques: sustainable goods and services.
• Gift vouchers: general retail and travel.
• Sport and culture vouchers: athletic and cultural events.
• Consumption vouchers: purchasing-power premiums.

In Belgium, Adyen supports the following meal voucher issuers:

One physical card can support multiple voucher types from the same issuer. Each voucher type has a separate balance and can only be used with merchants registered for that scheme. The issuer declines a payment if your MID is not registered or your MCC is not eligible under the relevant Royal Decree.

Edenred vouchers can only be used in Belgium. For example, an Edenred payment at a French store will be declined.

Activation

To activate Belgian meal vouchers:

1. For Edenred, make sure the stores where you want to accept Edenred meal vouchers have the country code BE.
2. Identify the voucher categories that match your product inventory.
3. Sign an agreement with the voucher issuers (Monizze, Pluxee, and Edenred) for each voucher type that you want to accept.
4. Register your MIDs with the voucher issuers.
5. Ask your Adyen contact to:
   • Enable Intersolve on your merchant account for Monizze and Pluxee.
   • Enable partial authorizations. This is needed for online payments integrations to handle split tenders on Edenred meal vouchers.

Finland

In Finland, Adyen supports the following issuer:

Activation

Contact Edenred to register your MID for each store where you want to accept the vouchers. Issuers decline payments from unregistered MIDs.

France

French meal vouchers, known as Titres-restaurant, are regulated by the Commission Nationale des Titres-Restaurant (CNTR). A shopper can spend up to EUR 25 per day. The vouchers cannot be used on Sundays or public holidays.

In France, Adyen supports the following meal voucher issuers:

Activation

To activate French meal vouchers:

1. Get CNTR authorization. You receive a Carte de domiciliation CONECS and an associated CONECS MID.
2. Sign an agreement with each voucher issuer that you want to accept and register your MIDs with them.
3. If applicable for the vouchers that you want to accept, ask your Adyen contact to enable Conecs on your merchant account.

For integration instructions, see Titres-restaurant.

Germany

In Germany, Adyen supports the following meal voucher issuers:

Activation

Contact each issuer to register your MID for each store where you want to accept the vouchers. Issuers decline payments from unregistered MIDs.

Luxembourg

In Luxembourg, Adyen supports the following meal voucher issuers:

Activation

Contact each issuer to register your MID for each store where you want to accept the vouchers. Issuers decline payments from unregistered MIDs.

Spain

In Spain, Adyen supports the following meal voucher issuers:

Activation

Contact each issuer to register your MID for each store where you want to accept the vouchers. Issuers decline payments from unregistered MIDs.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, Adyen supports the following issuer:

Activation

To activate Lunch Check:

1. Sign an agreement with Lunch Check.
2. Ask your Adyen contact to enable Intersolve.

Next steps