End of the receipt: what will change from January 1, 2023

Want your receipt? To this question, many French people still answer “yes”, because they like to have a record of what they have bought. It must be said that this little piece of paper can be very useful when you have to check the price of a product or the quantity invoiced. It then serves as proof when an error is found and can also be requested by the store as proof of your purchase. Yet, despite all these advantages, it will soon disappear.

As the Public Service website explains, “on January 1, 2023, the automatic printing of the receipt will end in France”. A change that is made “in the context of the fight against waste and substances dangerous to health”. While 30 billion receipts are printed each year, some will no longer be printed automatically. Here are which ones:

In summary, after having paid for your shopping at the checkout, you will no longer automatically have your receipt, your bank card receipt or the colored vouchers entitling you to promotions. Are they prohibited for everyone? No, as the Public Service explains, from January 1, 2023, “to obtain a printed receipt, the consumer will now have to expressly request it from the merchant”.

However, some situations are exempt from this new regulation. This is the sale of so-called “durable” goods, which include household appliances, computer equipment or telephone devices. Payment errors are also excluded: “Bank card tickets relating to operations canceled or subject to credit will also always be systematically printed”.

If you no longer have a receipt, where will the proof of purchase be? As of January 1, e-tickets will be sent to you in several ways.

While these solutions are ingenious, they raise many questions. Be careful about the choice you make starting January 1st, because it could have consequences. We explain why.

While the end of printing is a good thing for the environment, it raises many questions when it comes to your personal data. The Public Service website explains that, “in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the collection of data from the buyer is subject to his explicit consent”. Clearly, a merchant will have to ask for your agreement to obtain your email address or your telephone number, in order to send you your receipt… But he will obtain it anyway, if you need your payment receipt.

This question poses a problem according to the CNIL, because the collection of consent is still very vague. Will the cashiers have to make you sign a paper assuring that you have given your consent? Will a verbal agreement be deemed sufficient? By obtaining your email address, a brand can then follow your habits to send you targeted advertisements, recalls Cnews. If some merchants could make the distinction between obtaining your personal data to receive a receipt and obtaining to be contacted again, this may not be the case for all… It is then the door open to many many deviations.

So how?

If you want to keep your receipt and are not comfortable giving out your email address, then it is best to ask for the printed version. Please note, since this is a collective effort to limit our paper waste, choose this option for really important purchases, at the supermarket for example. For your baguette paid for via contactless, you won’t necessarily need it, will you?

If you still want to have a record of your payments without using a paper receipt, then you can opt for applications that consolidate your proof of payment, such as Check or Billiv, which works with a QR code and therefore without an email address or phone number.

Whatever your choice, remember that the receipt remains mandatory for certain purchases. If a merchant tries to make you believe otherwise to get your email address, he is in the wrong and should automatically print it for you.