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Luca check-in: In the future, 9,000 euros per year per health department instead of the previous 18,000 euros
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
Winter sale at Luca: The makers of the controversial contact tracing app are accommodating the federal states in the ongoing negotiations on contract extensions.
The federal states no longer have to commit to using the Luca system for a full year, but can decide month by month whether their health authorities should use the Luca data, the operating company Cultur4Life announced on Monday in Berlin.
At the same time, the Luca makers halved the costs: in future, 9,000 euros per year will be due per health department instead of the previous 18,000 euros.
This means that the infrastructure and software of the Luca system can be retained, said Culture4Life Managing Director Patrick Hennig of the German Press Agency.
About a year ago, the Luca app was supposed to collect the contact details of restaurant guests and event visitors, which is required by most infection protection regulations, in a data protection-friendly and efficient way.
However, the system has repeatedly sparked criticism, for example due to security gaps and the communication between the operators.
In addition, experts doubt that the Luca system can actually effectively support the health authorities.
Berlin, Brandenburg and Bremen will probably not extend
The Luca contracts with 13 federal states (all except Saxony, Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia) have so far had an annual volume of around 20 million euros including VAT.
So far, of the 13 Luca contracting countries, only Schleswig-Holstein has given notice of termination in writing.
However, there are indications that federal states such as Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg and Bremen are also about to terminate the contract.
Hennig said that so that health protection continues to be served to the maximum, Luca wants to give the federal states the flexibility to use the system whenever they need it. "Luca will maintain the basic supply with Luca technology in every federal state in the long term and give each federal state the opportunity to use the system at any time as required for virtually any period of time." Corresponding information has already been sent to the federal states.
At the same time, Luca wants to position himself more strongly as a digitization partner for the gastronomy and cultural sectors.
Restaurateurs and organizers would have to "check the vaccination certificate, have their identity card and, if necessary, a reservation and a ticket shown," says the press release.
Luca can map all of this in one step: »With the function of a digital ID, based on the ID card«.
In addition, the health authorities “need a digital solution in an endemic situation with which they can inform as many citizens as possible digitally”.
Last August, Hennig told SPIEGEL that there was no post-pandemic business model for Luca.
pbe/dpa
