The long-expected and several times postponed abolition of systematic receipt printing in France finally entered into force on August 1 st , 2023.
This rule is prescribed by Law n°2020-105 of February 10 th , 2020, relating to the fight against waste and the circular economy and it implies that receipts are no longer automatically printed by the merchant. The reasoning behind the decision is the fight against dangerous substances present in paper used for receipts printing and to reduce the significant waste that these receipts create (30 billion receipts printed each year).
This does not mean that the customer completely lost the right to receive a proof of his purchase.
At every request, the merchant is obligated to provide a paper receipt to the buyer.
To ensure that buyers know their right, the retailer must, in a legible and comprehensible manner, display somewhere at the point of sale the notification that the request for printing of the receipt can be made by the customer.
In case of no such request, it is possible to provide an e-receipt, after receiving consent from the customer.
However, some receipts are still to be printed automatically even after August 1 st , 2023.
Those are the following:
- receipts relating to the purchase of so-called “durable” goods, where the existence and duration of the legal guarantee of conformity are mentioned. This concerns e.g. household appliances, computer equipment or telephone devices;
- bank card tickets relating to operations canceled or subject to a credit;
- credit card payment transactions canceled or subject to credit;
- tickets issued by machines whose storage and presentation are necessary to benefit from a product or service;
- receipts or other billing documents printed by non-automatic weighing instruments.