News in Brief

Belgium Approves Cash Protection Legislation

Belgian businesses and shopkeepers will soon be obliged to accept cash payments following the Federal Government’s approval of legislation around cash acceptance. This follows a rise in the number of establishments that do not accept cash and subsequent complaints about the issue.

The latest legislation follows that introduced two years ago requiring all companies, regardless of their size, to offer consumers at least one electronic payment system. Whilst that obligation did expand electronic payment access, it explicitly mentioned its supplementary intention, noting that the ‘solution cannot under any circumstances replace cash payments, which must always be accepted’.

Although current rules are based on European jurisprudence (or through the European Union), the national government has taken further steps to ensure that merchants are required to accept cash as a payment method and enable inspectors to sanction those who have been caught twice refusing to accept it.