Company registry accepts "Café" with é. Payment processor rejects non-ASCII. Bank account requires "CAFE" in capitals. Three systems, three different names. Technical debt begins day one.
Database Field Limits
Legacy systems: VARCHAR(50) ASCII-only. Modern: UTF-8 support but inconsistent. Your "Größe" brand becomes "Gro?e" in one system, "Grosse" in another. Data corruption invisible until customer contact.
Payment Gateway Problems
Stripe supports UTF-8. PayPal converts to ASCII. "Café Solutions Ltd" → customer statement shows "Caf Solutions Ltd." Chargebacks spike (unrecognised merchant name).
The Display Issue
Email subject lines: UTF-8 support varies. "Größe Newsletter" displays correctly Gmail, breaks Outlook 2010. Mobile apps truncate special chars. "Größe" becomes "Gre" on iOS notifications.
API Integration
CRM API expects ASCII. Your "Müller" customers imported as "M?ller." Sales pipeline corrupted. Reporting broken. De-duplication impossible (system sees different names).
Search Engine Behaviour
Google handles UTF-8 perfectly. Internal site search? Depends on implementation. "Café" search finds "Cafe" results sometimes, not always. User frustration inevitable.
The Uppercase Problem
German ß has no traditional uppercase. Modern ẞ exists but unsupported widely. Legal docs require capitals. "GROẞE" vs "GROSSE" = different legally? Ambiguity persists.
The ASCII-Only Strategy
Name brand with diacritics for marketing. Register legal entity ASCII-only. "Café Noir" (brand) + "Cafe Noir Ltd" (legal). Compatibility guaranteed, character preserved where possible.
Trademark Lens handles UTF-8 correctly but downstream systems (banks, payment processors, government registries) may not - test integration early.