European merchant acquirer and payments processor Worldline said it now supports the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard developed by Google and industry partners to support automated commerce conducted through AI agents.
The integration enables merchants to accept purchases initiated by AI agents across multiple UCP-connected platforms without creating separate payment integrations for each one. Merchants can establish their payment configuration once and use it to accept cards, mobile wallets and European payment methods, the Paris-based company said.
UCP provides a common framework through which AI agents can discover products and execute transactions. Worldline’s payment handler connects those agentic commerce platforms with merchant back-end systems and is available through the company’s Global Collect cross-border payment platform.
“As AI starts to play a bigger role in how consumers discover and buy products, merchants are looking for ways to capture these new opportunities without adding complexity to their operations,” says Stijn Gasthuys, head of Global Commerce and CEO of Global Collect at Worldline Group. “Our role is to make that possible through payment capabilities they already know and trust.”
The development reflects a broader effort to establish infrastructure for agentic commerce as AI systems move beyond product discovery and recommendations toward completing transactions on behalf of users. Worldline cites a McKinsey estimate that transactions conducted through AI agents could reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030.