The Federal Ministry of the Economy has received 1,881 reports of businesses failing to provide an electric means of payment since July of last year following the introduction of a law obliging them to do so.
The new regulation has forced retailers to offer at least one form of digital payment, risking a fine of €80,000 or up to 4% of their total annual turnover if they failed to do so.
But these businesses kept ignoring these demands, with the Ministry of the Economy receiving 1,347 complaints last year and 534 since the start of 2023 from customers who had been obliged to pay by cash.
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These retailers had already been criticised for failing to respect the new law in August 2022, when after the federal authorities revealed that 103 customers had complained about not being able to pay digitally.
The federal ministry has reminded customers that they should first remind retailers of their legal obligation to provide a digital payment option, before filing a report with them.
In any case, the Ministry of the Economy has also now chosen to carry out its own checks, having recorded 103 infringements during 2,105 inspections since the law came into effect.
