If the bill comes to fruition, we can say goodbye to receipts starting the January 1, 2023. The measure, provided for in the anti-waste law, plans to prohibit businesses from systematically printing receipts to customers.
From now on, it will be necessary to give a positive answer to the question explicitly asked by the checkout host during each payment to receive his precious paper. Otherwise, consumers will be able to leave without it.
An equivalent measure exists in England, where merchants are no longer required to print and generate a receipt if the customer does not request it. It’s the same in Belgium.
The measure might save millions of kilometers of paper. Each year, on average, a business prints 848 kilometers of paper, the equivalent of a Paris-Montpellier. An amount that cannot persist for the next few years.
Because for many purchases, the receipt is not essential and generally ends up in the trash. For everyday expenses, such as a small grocery shopping, it is generally thrown away by the consumer or the merchant. A gesture that must belong to the past. But by which alternative will we passto justify our purchases?
How to do without receipt?
The ban is not yet in force this year but several brands have already taken the plunge. The Système U cooperative, which brings together Hyper U, Super U, U Express and Utile, as well as Carrefour, have gotten ahead of the law and switched to ticketless by default.
“We wanted to get ahead of the decree and get our consumers used to not systematically receiving tickets long before 2023”said Thierry Desouches, communication manager of System U, to Actu.fr.
Generally, customers therefore leave without any paper, but also without any proof of purchase. Several associations fighting for consumer rights, such as UFC-Que Choisir, are opposed to the concept which removes any proof of purchase.
Abolition of receipts? Is it really legal? I can’t prove my good faith in case of control, if I pay in cash I look like a thief and if I pay by card I’m also a thief
I invite you to request a detailed invoice for all your items— Marie-Anne Aubry ???????????????????????? (@MarieAnneAubry1) April 21, 2022
The absence of a receipt is also a means of distancing the consumer even further from the amount of his payments, of helping him to make his accounts, of remaining aware of the prices, and even get a refundmake an exchange or exercise a guarantee.
“How can we do our accounts now?” wondered Orianne, leaving a Monoprix in Montpellier.
The difficult alternative to the receipt
In the case of purchases where the receipt has a significant value, in particular for the reasons mentioned above, then the alternative will be e-mail. You have certainly already been asked to obtain your receipt by email rather than in paper format.
If the receipts disappear, chances are that the proposal to send by email is becoming widespread – this was the case in Belgium when the State introduced the end of the automatic till receipt. But once more, there are many questions.
Namely that emails are far from being as clean as they lead one to believe. In terms of emissions, sending and storing emails is a real nuisance for the environment, especially if users do not clean their inboxes.
Au final, the impact for the environment can be as important as paper printing. And customers remain skeptical, rightly, of entrusting their personal data in this way.
The last alternative then concerns the loyalty cards. These can make it possible to list the various purchases on a personal profile, like a bank history.
But not all customers want to open an account with a business. Therefore, many will continue to request a paper ticket.
