Environmental protection measures do not always arouse unanimous consensus, either because they are expensive or because they cause inconvenience. This has happened again in France with the entry into force, yesterday, of the end of the systematic printing on paper of the purchase receipt in shops.
In theory, the general non-printing of the receipt is a measure taken for a good cause, to curb the use of paper and thus preserve the forests. It is estimated that every year 12,000 million purchase receipts are printed in France, which represents no less than 150,000 tons of paper. The initiative will also be applied in a very flexible manner. The consumer can always demand a paper receipt, and this will be issued when the document also serves as a guarantee for a product and from a certain quantity.
However, twelve consumer associations have opposed the new practice due to the risk it implies for customers in the event of a price error or the need to change a defective product. The big winners from the change are seen as merchants, who save paper and have a more effective way of rejecting claims.
Some are even more suspicious. “I have worked in supermarkets and I know what can happen,” Sébastien, a newsstand who is very skeptical of the measure, told this newspaper. Imagine that they voluntarily make a few cents wrong on some products, always in favor of trade. People won’t notice. And with the volume of business, those cents ultimately represent a lot of money”. “I very much agree with protecting the planet, but why do we always have to be the first? Why don’t they start in India or China?” added the interlocutor.
As an alternative to the paper receipt, businesses may offer customers who already have a loyalty card or those who want to register to receive a digital receipt by email or SMS. There will also be the option to download it through the QR code.
Consumer organizations are critical of the digital receipt because of what it implies for the storage of private customer data, such as their purchasing habits. They consider that it threatens their privacy and gives businesses very valuable information to guide their offer strategy and pricing policy. There is a general fear that, without a paper receipt, some customers will lose the feeling that they are spending, buy excessively and then go into debt.
The entry into force of the dematerialization of receipts should have already taken place in April, but it was delayed twice due to strong inflation. The Government estimated that keeping the ticket on paper could help the population to better control spending and compare prices to alleviate the rise in the cost of living.
The elimination of the paper ticket was provided for in the law against waste and for a circular economy that was adopted three years ago. That same law led to State subsidies for the repair of electrical appliances and, for a few weeks, aid for the mending of shoes and dresses.
Many French feel ecologists as long as it doesn’t affect their pockets or they are not forced to abruptly change their habits. In the autumn of 2018, one of the most important measures to reduce fuel consumption, which provided for an ecotax of a few cents for each liter of gasoline and diesel, triggered the revolt of the yellow vests, a serious crisis of public order that lasted for long periods of time. months and put Macron in check. Finally, the ecotax was withdrawn. Something similar occurs with the periodic attempts to reduce the maximum speed on highways (130 km/hour) or on departmental roads (90 km/hour). Proposals in this sense always raise a lot of popular rejection.
