Accepting Titres-Restaurant as a merchant
Titres-Restaurant are the French meal vouchers that employees spend at approved restaurants and food retailers. They exist on paper and as cards, and the card transactions of the main issuers, Edenred, Pluxee, Swile-Bimpli and Up, run through CONECS, a technical operator that handles the cards of its issuer clients. The holder can spend up to 25 euro a day, not on Sundays or public holidays unless the employer allows it. For a merchant the method is not one contract but four, and the PSP fee is the smallest line on the bill. The issuer commission is the large one, and the 25 euro daily ceiling decides how much of an order it can touch.
Published prices for Titres-Restaurant (CONECS)Per provider, country and channel, further down this pageGo to the pricesHow to accept Titres-Restaurant as a merchant
Acceptance starts with an approval, not with a PSP. The establishment applies to the Commission Nationale des Titres-Restaurant, which states a processing time of 40 working days and lists restaurateurs, fruit and vegetable retailers and other food retailers as the activities it approves. Once approved, each issuer contacts the merchant to sign a contract and open an account, and the merchant then receives a CONECS domiciliation card by post.
In store, every terminal needs an update for CONECS cards, free at CONECS partner maintainers apart from communication costs, and CONECS states that terminals without CB approval do not accept CONECS cards. Online, CONECS issues a separate e-commerce identifier, because the in-store one cannot be used online, and the PSP connects it. The result is one approval, up to four issuer contracts, one or more CONECS identifiers and a PSP that switches the transactions.
Rail
CONECS is a private network, and the issuer pays you
On the CONECS rail the issuer authorises the payment and debits the holder's balance at once, and the issuer reimburses the merchant directly. Viva.com's documentation states that merchants are paid by the meal voucher issuers, not by Viva.com, and that it charges a switching fee. CONECS states that there is no bank commission on CONECS Titres-Restaurant transactions.
Not every meal voucher card runs only on that rail. Viva.com describes cards that are dual-badged Conecs-Visa, Conecs-Mastercard or Conecs-Cartes Bancaires, or Conecs only. Lyra's documentation describes first-generation cards that are Visa or Mastercard cards and require a card acceptance contract, and mixed cards that work on both. Swile states that its card works like an ordinary bank card on terminals of all banks. Which rail a transaction takes therefore decides which contract prices it.
Where Titres-Restaurant are used
Titres-Restaurant are a French product. Viva.com states that merchant and shopper must both be in France, and Adyen lists France and the euro. CONECS describes access to a private terminal network among 180,000 affiliated merchants, and it runs separate acceptance routes for shops and restaurants, for e-commerce and for vending machines.
Online, the method matters for food delivery, ready meals and grocery e-commerce. Viva.com lists the merchant category codes it accepts for CONECS, from grocery stores and bakeries to restaurants, fast food and hotels. A merchant outside those activities does not obtain the approval and cannot accept the method, whatever its PSP offers.
Pricing
The issuers publish their commissions, and they dwarf the PSP fee
Unusually, the issuers print their merchant tariffs. Edenred's tariff from 5 January 2026 lists a business commission of 3.80% and technical fees of 0.55% on paper and card volume, plus a weekly fee of 1.10 euro excluding VAT in weeks with activity. Pluxee lists 3.9% of the transaction plus 0.08 euro including VAT for each payment by card or app and a monthly fee of 2.50 to 15 euro by turnover. Swile and Bimpli list 3.85% excluding VAT plus 0.04 euro per transaction, waived for Swile cards. Up lists network and service fees of 0.55% and 0.30% and 0.06 euro per card transaction, beside a separate business commission.
PSPs charge for switching. Viva.com publishes 0.15 euro per transaction, with monthly plans up to 19.99 euro. Lyra publishes 0.20 euro as an indicative rate, with a direct contract with CONECS. Société Générale publishes the option free on Sogecommerce, excluding the issuers' fees, with a 300 euro connection fee and 33 euro a month for Sogecommerce itself. On a 20 euro lunch, Edenred's two percentages come to 0.87 euro and Viva.com adds 0.15 euro, so 1.02 euro in total. Pluxee comes to 0.86 euro and Swile to 0.77 euro on a Swile card, before the PSP fee.
These are published list prices and the comparison is illustrative; your quoted rate decides what you actually pay. On 500,000 euro of meal voucher volume at an average of 20 euro, the 25,000 transactions cost 3,750 euro at Viva.com's switching fee and 5,000 euro at Lyra's indicative rate. The issuer commission on the same volume is about 21,750 euro at Edenred's rates and 19,250 euro at Swile's. The PSP line is the one most merchants negotiate, and the issuer line is the one that moves the total.
Basket
The 25 euro ceiling caps the commission per shopper per day
CONECS states that the maximum is 25 euro a day, in one or more payments, and that an online basket above the ceiling or the balance can be completed with a bank card. Only eligible products may be paid with the voucher, and CONECS describes separating the payment of eligible products in the checkout. The Commission Nationale des Titres-Restaurant states that law 2025-56 of 21 January 2025 extends the use of Titres-Restaurant for most food products until 31 December 2026.
That ceiling turns the issuer commission into a cost per shopper per day rather than a percentage of the order. Take an 80 euro grocery order with 50 euro of eligible products: the voucher pays 25 euro and the card pays 55 euro. At Edenred's published rates the voucher part costs about 1.09 euro, plus a 0.15 euro switching fee, so about 1.24 euro, on any order with at least 25 euro of eligible products, whether it is 30 euro or 300 euro. The card part carries your quoted card rate and its own fixed fee, because one order has become two payments.
Two things follow for the checkout. The eligibility of each product must be a field in your catalogue, maintained by someone, because the scope of eligible products is set by law and has a dated end. And the split must work: Lyra states that partial payment on a CONECS card depends on the issuer returning a partial authorisation code, and Adyen lists partial captures as not supported.
Contract
Refunds are not standard on this method, so agree the route in writing
Viva.com states that refunds on CONECS are not yet supported, and Adyen lists refunds and partial refunds as not supported. Lyra describes that an abandoned or cancelled transaction is reversed and the holder's balance restored, and that if the reversal fails the issuer restores the balance when the authorisation expires. That covers a payment that never completes, not a return a week later.
Swile's affiliate terms add a deadline: a claim about the reimbursement of a card transaction must be made within six months, or it is inadmissible, and either party can end the contract with fifteen days' notice. Agree in writing with your PSP and each issuer how a returned order paid partly by Titre-Restaurant is reversed after settlement, and check each issuer's reimbursements against your own records well inside its claim window.
The rail a card takes decides when you are paid
Pluxee states that with a terminal configured for second-generation CONECS cards, reimbursement is made every week, and that without the CONECS configuration the bank usually reimburses within 24 to 48 hours. Swile's affiliate terms state that its settlement period is generally between 24 and 48 hours. The same lunch can therefore reach you a day later or a week later, under a different contract, depending on how the terminal routes the card.
Reconciliation follows the issuers, not the PSP. CONECS states that the settlement ticket in store shows the detail by issuer and that there is no visible settlement ticket for online Titres-Restaurant. With four issuers paying separately on their own schedules, each net of its own commission, the bank statement only reconciles if every issuer's reimbursement is matched to its transactions.
Which payment providers support Titres-Restaurant
In the index, Adyen, Flatpay, La Banque Postale, Lyra, Société Générale, Viva.com and Yavin offer Titres-Restaurant to merchants established in France. CONECS also names terminal partners including Smile&Pay, Nayax and SumUp. Whichever PSP you use, the CNTR approval and the issuer contracts are your own.
The questions to put to each are the same: the switching fee per transaction and any monthly plan, which issuers it connects, whether it supports partial authorisation and refunds, how dual-badged cards are routed, and what settlement data it gives you per issuer.
Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index
Published prices for Titres-Restaurant (CONECS), per provider
7 providers in the index offer Titres-Restaurant (CONECS) to merchants established in Europe, and 3 of them publish a price.
Each rate is shown as the provider prints it, and the provider's name links to the page it was read on. A published rate is a list rate: what a merchant actually pays is stated in the quoted rate and the contract.
The country where your business is established and from which you sell. Shoppers pay with Titres-Restaurant (CONECS) in: France.
| Provider | Per transaction | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Adyen Merchants in France | No price published | Online and in-store |
| Flatpay Merchants in France | No price published | In-store |
| La Banque Postale Merchants in France | No price published | Online |
| Lyra Merchants in France | Bimpli Resto, Upcoop Déjeuner and Pluxee: €0.20 + direct contract with Conecs; indicative rates for standard cards (à titre indicatif)Plus the method owner’s fee | Online |
| Société Générale Merchants in France | Sogecommerce online: Titres Restaurants Dématérialisés (Conecs) option free, excluding the fees charged by the meal-voucher issuers under the merchant's own affiliation contract; Sogecommerce connection fee €300.00 one-off on opening; monthly subscription €33.00Plus the method owner’s fee, plus subscription | Online |
| Viva.com Merchants in France | €0.15; Ecommerce monthly plans: Zero 0 (minimum monthly charge €4.99), Default €4.99, Standard €12.99, Premium €19.99Fixed amount, plus subscription | Online |
| Viva.com Merchants in France | €0.15; minimum €0.10 per in-store transaction; In-person monthly plans: Zero 0 (minimum monthly charge €4.99), Default €4.99, Standard €12.99, Premium €19.99Fixed amount, with minimum, plus subscription | In-store |
| Yavin Merchants in France | No price published | In-store |
Source: EcomStream, Retail Payment Methods Transparency Index, ecomstream.eu/payment-methods-transparency-index. Read at source between 22 September 2026 and 12 October 2026. A provider that believes a row is wrong can write to index@ecomstream.nl. Every reported correction is checked at the source.
Reviewing what Titres-Restaurant cost you
What you pay for Titres-Restaurant is set in your contracts with the issuers and with your PSP, not by a scheme. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where meal vouchers are a material share of your French food volume, set each issuer's commission and your PSP's switching fee side by side before you renew.
Relevant markets: France
Payment set-up check
Accepting meal vouchers in France? Let's check what Titres-Restaurant really cost you.
Enter your webshop. The check sets your checkout against what shoppers in each of your markets expect, and names the gaps. If you want, it then calculates what those gaps cost you in euros.
Ramon Helwegen
