A new law in Greece requires merchants that accept payments through POS devices to clearly advertise that they take this form of payment or risk a $1,076 fine.
The move is a Ministry of Finance bid to expand the electronic transactions
market in the country.
The law requires business owners that accept payment cards to clearly
notify consumers in a manner that is not open to
misinterpretation. The notifications should be posted both at the entrance of
the store and at the cash register.
Various departments of the government will be responsible
for imposing fines on merchants that do not offer consumers complete payment
information, though the fine can be halved if the merchant pays it
within 30 days of notification. The new rule’s implementation is subject to
approval from the Minister of Economy and Development.
The fine is the first step in the Ministry of Finance’s plan
to expand electronic transactions in the country. Following the implementation
of this notification regulation, the ministry will roll out requirements for
merchants to install POS devices to accept electronic payments. The requirement
will be in three phases targeting different industries, with the
first coming within the first half of 2017, the second coming by the end of the
year and the third coming in the first half of 2018.
