The government is considering the possibility of introducing, starting in September, a series of economic sanctions for merchants who do not accept electronic payments. In reality, the law already exists – it dates back to 2015 – but so far the fines have never entered into force. To make them operational, a ministerial decree jointly between the Treasury and Economic Development will suffice.
The aim of the provision is to encourage payments by credit card and debit card, traceable tools and therefore fundamental allies in the fight against tax evasion. Italy has always been in the last places in the European ranking of digital payments, due to a cultural issue but also due to the costs associated with the use of the POS. The new sanctions aim precisely to reverse this trend.
The regulation that the European Union has made binding since last November goes in the same direction. The new EU regulations have imposed a ceiling on interbank fees on electronic transactions, reducing the costs of payment circuits such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners (for credit cards) and Pagobancomat and Maestro (for debit cards).
To date, for every 100 euros spent with a credit card, a commission is paid of just over one euro, while for transactions via debit card the cost drops to around 80 cents.
