Consumer protection ministers want to make paying with cash future-proof
The Conference of Consumer Protection Ministers is concerned about deteriorating access to cash and calls for swift countermeasures.
You should hold on to cash.
(Image: Hadrian/Shutterstock.com)
Cash and manual payment services are increasingly being replaced by cards, smartphones and internet services. However, at its meeting in Regensburg on Friday, the Conference of Consumer Protection Ministers (VSMK) stated that bills and coins "continue to play an important and central role" in many life situations. The option of making cash payments is "also essential in the future". One advantage of this is that the right to informational self-determination can be guaranteed. Because with this payment option, "no data is collected and stored".
Cash is also "a non-discriminatory and simple payment method that does not exclude any consumer group", praise the consumer protection ministers of the federal states in a resolution with which they want to make paying with cash future-proof. People without a current account and consumers "who have little technical knowledge or no access to online payment systems" could also make use of this. At the same time, the VSMK is concerned that access to and acceptance of cash has been steadily deteriorating for years. In particular, the decreasing number of ATMs in rural areas is increasingly becoming a problem.
Cash as a crisis-proof payment system
The group of ministers also points to the resilience of the cash system. Considering current threats such as international conflicts, cyberattacks and cybercrime, cash represents "a crisis-proof payment system that is highly resistant to digital manipulation". For similar reasons, the Swedish Riksbank recently emphasized the indispensable role of cash. The VSMK now emphasizes that this must be protected to be able to process payments even in the event of a crisis. It is therefore calling on the German government to "also advocate at EU level for the nationwide preservation and use of cash as a means of payment".
The appeal is just one of many resolutions with which the VSMK is responding to the "growing challenges of digitalization". On 80 pages, the conference also calls for measures to increase consumer protection when purchasing event tickets and for children and young people when playing online games. The ministers have declared war on misleading price information in e-commerce and want to strengthen the security of digital payment instruments and the rights of bank customers in the event of IT failures. They are pushing to curb non-European online platforms such as Shein and Temu and to put a stop to operators of fake stores, for example by requiring proof of identity when registering domains. They also resent the increasing digital constraints.
(mack)
