[pronik]

An especially egregious case I've encountered was at Berlin train station.

Normally in Germany, you've got those distinct card terminals with a display where you see your total before paying. Some of those have started nagging you for tips which you need to explicitely accept or decline first before tapping your card. Not in this case though: after you've ordered your food, they point you to the combined order/pay display and while you awe at the technology marvel of combining both, you tap your card on that and then you notice that 15% tip has been automatically included and charged. You needed to notice some small text and small buttons in the corner of that display beforehand and actively tap on "0%" or something before tapping your card. I'm already furious they've let this tip begging to be added to the card terminals, but charging tips without explicit consent should be completely illegal.

[RestartKernel]

At Schiphol they offer tipping options to presumably prey on Americans, but the attendant physically reached over the counter to reject it after I ordered in (native) Dutch. Can't imagine how much trouble locals had been giving the shop before training staff like this.

[mpeg]

Happens in Spain too, the card machine will sometimes have tip options but the waiter selects no tip if serving locals to avoid the annoyance

[mk12]

I’ve seen Starbucks employees in the US do this often.

[direwolf20]

It is illegal. They're counting on you to be too busy to sue them. That's why you only saw it in a train station. Ask your bank for a refund for the fraudulent transaction — you probably don't have enough evidence to prove it happened, but they'll still put the complaint on file.

Lawsuits and chargebacks are about the only pressure businesses have not to scam you.

[port11]

And wonderfully done in a city where people are usually paid a living wage, and even students don’t have to work for free (hi Belgium!)

[nicbou]

I am pretty sure it is completely illegal.

[account42]

Would the credit card company / bank let you dispute the charge? I imagine that's going to be difficult with a card present transaction.

[reaperducer]

An especially egregious case I've encountered was at Berlin train station.

You must have been in Berlin, Wisconsin because we've been assured repeatedly on HN that the tipping plague thing is exclusively an American problem, and never ever happens in Eurosparkleponyland.

Ditto for spam calls and texts.

[pronik]

The problem is that US is actively exporting all the plagues they call their own worldwide, so that tipping (the mandatory-on-the-card-terminal kind) is currently actively infecting Europe. Which you could have gathered by reading this very discussion.

[MarceliusK]

And I think people don't mind tipping when they feel it's voluntary

[missingdays]

I hate that the tipping culture is infecting Germany now

[spinningarrow]

Tipping culture has been around in Germany for a long time, hasn’t it? It’s surprisingly common there