How do people in France pay online?
Most French people shop online. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 80.15% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%.
Cards dominate. In the ECB’s SPACE 2024 study, cards made up 54% of online payments in France by number and 51% by value. E-payment solutions, which cover wallets, PayPal and other payment apps, made up 27% by number and 24% by value. The rest is split between credit transfers, direct debits, instant payments and other methods.
Cartes Bancaires is the domestic card network. More than 95% of CB cards are co-badged with Visa or Mastercard, so a payment can be processed over CB or over the international network. In the EEA, a merchant that accepts co-badged cards must let the customer choose the network at checkout. CB dispute rules are stricter than those of the international schemes, with fewer reasons a cardholder can dispute a charge. CB cards also work in Apple Pay.
Wero is coming to online shopping. The European Payments Initiative launched Wero in Germany for e-commerce in November 2025 and said Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands would follow in 2026. Wero is based on instant account-to-account payments, and EPI plans subscription and instalment payments later.
What rules shape online payments in France?
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. For a distance purchase, a consumer has at least 14 calendar days to withdraw, counted from the day after receiving the goods. The seller must refund within 14 days of being told, by the same means of payment unless the consumer agrees to another one at no cost. If the seller did not inform the consumer of the right, the period is extended by 12 months. Under Directive (EU) 2023/2673, online shops must also offer an online withdrawal function from 19 June 2026.
Card surcharges are banned. EU rules do not allow merchants to charge customers extra for paying with a consumer credit or debit card. Strong customer authentication applies: Your Europe notes that online payments above EUR 30 need at least two authentication elements.
Instant payments are now standard. Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, banks in the euro area must let their customers send instant euro transfers and offer verification of payee since 9 October 2025.
VAT is 20%, with reduced rates of 10%, 5.5% and 2.1%. A seller established in another EU country whose cross-border sales to consumers across the EU pass EUR 10,000 a year charges French VAT on sales to French customers, and can declare it through the One Stop Shop. Electronic invoicing is being phased in for businesses in France from 1 September 2026, starting with large and mid-sized companies and reaching small and micro businesses from 1 September 2027.
How would Omno route payments in France?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, card network and customer group. In France:
- Cartes Bancaires would go to a provider that processes CB, with the hosted checkout letting the shopper choose between CB and Visa or Mastercard on a co-badged card.
- Card pay-ins would follow rules by BIN, network, currency and amount, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay would be offered through providers that support them, including saved cards for returning shoppers.
- Wero could be added through a provider with Wero e-commerce acceptance once it goes live in France.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, the record a back office should trust before shipping an order, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for Cartes Bancaires first. CB is the domestic card network, so check that your providers process CB as well as Visa and Mastercard.
Plan for network choice. Show the shopper a way to choose the network on co-badged cards, as EEA rules require.
Plan for refunds by the same means. Refunds are due within 14 days of a withdrawal and should go back to the card or method used.
Plan for e-invoicing. Check when the French e-invoicing rules apply to your entity, and whether your EU sales pass the EUR 10,000 VAT threshold.