The end of the systematic printing of the paper receipt will come into force on August 1 (AFP/Archives/DENIS CHARLET)
After two reprieves due to price swings in stores, the end of the systematic printing of paper receipts will come into effect on August 1, despite still high inflation. However, it is always possible to request it.
It was to be in January, then in April, it will finally be in August: two postponements later, this measure taken in the name of ecology will come into force on Tuesday August 1, confirmed Monday the cabinet of the Minister Delegate for Trade Olivia Grégoire, during a telephone press briefing.
“The minister had wanted a postponement when price inflation in supermarkets was at its maximum. (Gold) for several weeks, we have observed a decline in inflation”, explained the cabinet of Olivia Grégoire, acknowledging that inflation “remains very high” but ensuring that the decline “will continue”.
In April, the Bercy teams explained that “when you have 15% inflation on the shelves, the receipt is a landmark for many French people”.
Food inflation is still in double digits, measured at 13.6% over one year in June by INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies).
Crossed in a Parisian convenience store, Fred de Rosas judges that this measure is “a good thing”. “Besides, I don’t ask anymore at all,” she said. On the other hand, Béatrice, met not far and who does not wish to give her surname, uses these supporting documents “all the time” to do her accounts.
Several consumer associations, including UFC-Que Choisir and Rural Families, had recalled that this ticket is “a tool for managing the family budget” of many households, which makes it possible to “verify the accuracy of the amount of the transaction”.
On the side of the cabinet of Olivia Grégoire, it is hammered that “it is not the abolition of the ticket or the prohibition of its issuance” in question on August 1, but “the possibility for the consumer to refuse the receipt “.
In fact, the slip will not disappear: customers who wish can always ask for its printing, to remove a doubt about a price for example.
In some cases, a ticket remains systematically printed: at the restaurant or at the hotel, when the guarantee must be mentioned on the ticket (for household appliances or telephones for example), for canceled operations or even when the ticket concerns a service (hairdresser, garage, etc.) for an amount greater than 25 euros.
– 150,000 tons of paper –
At the end of March, the Perifem association, which brings together distribution players around energy or environmental issues, estimated that the French are “still more than half to say they want to request a ticket in paper format”.
Olivia Grégoire’s cabinet hopes that the entry into force of the measure in the middle of summer will “allow time to adopt the new reflexes at the start of the school year”.
The end of the systematic printing of the paper receipt will come into force on August 1 (AFP/Archives/Fred DUFOUR)
Merchants will all have to set up near the cash desks “a display which will explicitly say that it is now up to the consumer to ask for the receipt”.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) will carry out checks on this point and will check “the consistency between the price displayed on the shelf and the price paid at the checkout”, adds Bercy.
This measure stems from the “anti-waste and circular economy” law, passed in 2020, and aims to reduce waste production. Today, 12.5 billion receipts are printed each year in France. Some are very small and thus difficult “to collect and recycle”. In terms of environmental consequences, they represent 150,000 tons of paper, or 25 million trees cut and 18 billion liters of water consumed, according to Bercy.
However, the impact of the measure as it will come into force on August 1 is not known.
For consumers who would like to obtain a dematerialized receipt, the Cnil, the commission guaranteeing freedoms in the face of digital technology, published on March 10 its recommendations for the respect of privacy. Solutions exist to obtain a receipt without communicating personal details, for example the QR Code.
© 2023 AFP
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