Wero, the European payments service launched in July 2024 by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), relies on Amazon Web Services for part of its infrastructure despite promoting itself as a sovereign alternative to US payment giants.
The service, backed by major German banks including Deutsche Bank, Postbank, ING, GLS, Sparkassen and Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, claims over 50 million users and positions itself as “DIE starke und unabhängige europäische Lösung beim digitalen Bezahlen.”
However, EPI admitted to netzpolitik.org that Wero uses managed infrastructure and software services from AWS, a US-based subsidiary of Amazon.com, creating a contradiction between its sovereignty claims and technical dependencies.
Whereas EPI states it maintains “volle Kontrolle über deren Architektur, Sicherheitsmodell und Betrieb” and applies multi-layered security including encryption in transit and at rest, legal experts note that data stored via AWS remains potentially accessible to US authorities under laws like the CLOUD Act.
AWS launched its “European Sovereign Cloud” in early 2025 to address EU data localization demands, promising customer data remains within the bloc, but EPI has not confirmed whether Wero uses this specific offering.
EPI declined to detail its full technology stack citing security reasons, leaving open whether Wero benefits from AWS’s sovereign cloud or standard commercial services that do not guarantee immunity from foreign government access.
The contradiction emerges amid heightened EU debate on digital sovereignty following the start of Donald Trump’s second term, which accelerated efforts to reduce reliance on US tech providers across critical sectors.
Wero’s reliance on AWS underscores the difficulty of building truly independent European digital infrastructure, even when backed by institutional finance and political will.
How Wero’s technical model conflicts with its sovereignty narrative
EPI promotes Wero as a politically neutral, Europe-controlled payment layer but depends on AWS for core cloud functions, meaning transaction metadata and user data flows through systems subject to US jurisdiction regardless of encryption claims.
Why the AWS European Sovereign Cloud may not resolve the issue
Even if Wero used AWS’s sovereign cloud, the service remains operated by a US parent company and legal precedents suggest European data stored on foreign-owned infrastructure can still be compelled under US law, limiting true sovereignty.
What is Wero’s stated user base?
More than 50 million people use Wero according to EPI’s own claims, though the sources do not specify geographic distribution or active versus registered users.
Does Wero process payments entirely within Europe?
No, EPI confirmed that parts of Wero’s infrastructure run on AWS, meaning some data processing occurs on systems controlled by a US company, regardless of where the physical servers are located.
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