* fruit and vegetable juices, sparkling wine, wine, cider, mixed alcoholic drinks and energy drinks **will now also have a 25 cent Pfand** [**https://www.rnd.de/wirtschaft/pfand-25-cent-fuer-saefte-sekt-und-energydrinks-ab-2022-5XWCZZAT6FFWZJ7YM22HASPSEA.html**](https://www.rnd.de/wirtschaft/pfand-25-cent-fuer-saefte-sekt-und-energydrinks-ab-2022-5XWCZZAT6FFWZJ7YM22HASPSEA.html)
* registering as unemployed can be done online from 1 January;also ,most of the process in applying for ALG1 or ALG2 will be done digitally
* **you can give back old electronics devices,including smartphones,at supermarket in exchange for money(like a pfand for smartphones in a way**[**https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/discounter-ruecknahme-elektrogeraete-100.html**](https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/discounter-ruecknahme-elektrogeraete-100.html)
* from January you can no longer buy **paper tickets in trains** ([https://www.bahn.de/service/buchung/digitales-ticket](https://www.bahn.de/service/buchung/digitales-ticket))
* thin plastic bags will be banned [https://www.bmu.de/faq/warum-werden-plastiktueten-ab-2022-verboten](https://www.bmu.de/faq/warum-werden-plastiktueten-ab-2022-verboten)
* the Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung will be transmitted electronically to the Krankenkasse;the one you give to your boss will be digital from Juni 2022[https://www.aerztezeitung.de/Wirtschaft/Kein-Wahlrecht-bei-eAU-und-E-Rezept-fuer-Aerzte-425286.html](https://www.aerztezeitung.de/Wirtschaft/Kein-Wahlrecht-bei-eAU-und-E-Rezept-fuer-Aerzte-425286.html)
* electronic prescriptions(E-Rezept) become possible, although implementation will still take time
* the minimum wage will be increased to 9.80 euros
* massive expansion of the fiber optic network; Telekom alone installed 1.2 million household connections in 2021 ,and intends to install 2 million in 2022 [https://www.pcwelt.de/news/Ausbau-Deutsche-Telekom-will-Glasfaser-Komplettabdeckung-bis-2030-11154279.html](https://www.pcwelt.de/news/Ausbau-Deutsche-Telekom-will-Glasfaser-Komplettabdeckung-bis-2030-11154279.html)

fell free to add anything you find important

33 comments

  5. There is no mention on a pfand on smartphones in the article. Just that it is free to bring them there. Is this actually true?

  8. A few more points:

    * Long-term contracts (e.g. mobile phone, gym memberships) can now always be cancelled with only 1 months’ notice, and once their “normal” running time has passed, they can never be automatically extended longer than a month. This means that where previously you had to cancel your home internet contract three months before its end date, or else it would auto-renew for a whole year, now you can cancel it any time (after its initial usually 2 year running time) with only 1 months’ notice.
    * If you buy an item and it ends up being defective within the first six months, then it was previously assumed that it was likely (unless there was significant evidence to the contrary) that the defect already existed at purchase time, and you were therefore entitled to a warranty replacement. That period is now extended to 12 months.
    * The minimum salary for trainees (*Auszubildende*) increases from 550 to 585 € per month (in the first year; the minimum salaries for subsequent years are also increased by around 15%).
    * CO2 tax increases from 25€/ton to 30€/ton. This affects products like gas and petrol; it’s expected that this alone will cause the price of petrol to increase by around 1.5 cents per litre.
    * The “EEG-Umlage” (which everyone pays as part of their electricity costs, and which finances the guaranteed feed-in rates for operators of renewable power plants) will be reduced from 6.5 cents to 3.7 cents per kWh. For a typical 2-person household using 2000 kWh of electricity a year, this means a saving of around 55 € a year – assuming that the raw electricity price stays the same (which hasn’t been the case in the past few months).
    * Postage stamps increase in price by around 5 cents.

    Lastly, this isn’t strictly a change, but: 2022 is a census year for Germany. It was supposed to have been 2021, but was postponed because of the pandemic.

  9. Important: The end of buying tickets on board trains is only for **long-distance**(ICE/IC/EC) trains, for which I guess almost everyone buys tickets in advance anyway since it’s much cheaper.

    For all other trains the same rules as before apply.

  12. The Glasfaser is good news, the problem is only the price. I pay 30€ for 250mb with Vodafone Cable and the same with FTTH Telekom is almost 60€. Maybe it is time for them to resell the connections to other Network Providers like they do in other countries.

  14. I also got gigabit internet on paper. In reality, my system updates were crashing because no data was transmitted, I couldn’t play MS Flight Simulator, I couldn’t make any calls. After reporting this problem many times and being told that they know about it and working on it, and expect things to be better after a year (the same was said a year ago), I am significantly annoyed at any news and promotions about “Fast internet, UP TO 9000”, since I know what that means.

  15. I’m a so called “digital native”, even studied CS and while I generally like digitization and progress, this worries me a little bit.

    Things like:

    – from January you can no longer buy paper tickets in trains

    – the Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung will be transmitted electronically to the Krankenkasse;the one you give to your boss will be digital from Juni

    There are older (and younger) people around us, that are not so good at using or understanding the digital world. Some people are too poor for a decent smartphone, computer or internet at all.

    We should pay attention not to exclude people from changes and make sure everyone can participate.

  21. Fiber optic network 😱 oh my God, am I dreaming?? Absolutely fantastic, can’t wait to see it become more available and popular here! Will be wanting it as soon as it becomes available in my area 🙌

  22. I’m just missing an online anmeldung/abmeldung. Everything else is just perfect.
    (Living in Berlin)

  25. > registering as unemployed can be done online from 1 January;also ,most of the process in applying for ALG1 or ALG2 will be done digitally

    I was able to do this in August 21 already

  27. Tho it doesn’t say that for the pfand for electronics. It just says you can give the old electronics to them which is already true. I don’t understand

  28. >the Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung will be transmitted electronically to the Krankenkasse

    this fucking sentence. like there are no english words for that xDDD

  30. You are already able to claim an electronic prescription on online pharmacies, but the problem is that there are not many doctors currently able to prescribe them.

  32. >minimum wage will be increased to 9.80 euros

    What happened to 12 euros? I read online on a lot of German websites that the new Government was going to increase the minimum wage to 12 euros nationwide in all the Republics?

Leave a Reply