It will soon be illegal for merchants to refuse cash payments from customers, under new legislation approved by the Chamber this week. Unizo is unhappy with the decision, calling it “bullying”
“The government wants to solve a problem that does not exist,” according to Danny Van Assche of Unizo, which represents SMEs in Belgium. He was referring to new legislation approved by the Chamber yesterday that would require all businesses to accept cash from customers.
“The six percent of business owners who are cashless – because their customers are simply not asking for it – must now adapt,” Van Assche continued, calling the measure “bullying”. It will cost “time and money even though they operated perfectly without using cash.”
More cashless, more complaints
The federal parliament approved the legislation in the face of increasingly more businesses going cashless, which has led to increasingly more complaints from consumers. The EU already requires businesses to accept cash unless both parties agree on other methods of payment or under certain other conditions.
Belgium’s legislation is in keeping with EU regulation and will allow offences to be punishable. Businesses caught not accepting cash more than once will be fined.
It is already required to offer consumers an electronic means of payment, so the new law means that all shops in Belgium are required to offer both cash and electronic payments, either via a bank card or smartphone app.
The legislation will come into force soon, but the exact date is not known.