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Laws increasing penalties and control over traders, who do not accept the use of credit cards as a means of payment, passed the Plenum of the Parliament.
The MPs from all parties except ELAM and DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias voted in favour.
The first law amends the Law on Confirmation and Collection of Taxes, so that the maximum administrative fine that may be imposed by the Tax Inspector in the event of a violation of the provisions of the Council of Ministers' decree on the obligation of payees to accept card payments is increased from two thousand euros (€2,000) to four thousand euros (€4,000).
The second law defines the Consumer Protection Service as the competent authority to ensure and monitor the effective compliance of the final recipients of funds.
AKEL MP Kostas Kostas said that when the measure on compulsory acceptance of credit cards was implemented, many complaints came from consumers that businesses were imposing additional charges for low-priced products. He further said that there was a significant legislative gap and a consumer who wanted to lodge a complaint could not. He said that in the Committee on Energy, Trade, Industry and Tourism they had managed to get past the strong initial opposition from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank and came up with an agreed proposal for a law to protect consumers, which should have been done by the Government.
DISY MP, Chairman of the Energy Committee Kyriakos Hatzigiannis said that the legislation was for the benefit of the consumer, since in practice card payment was not accepted by various people, pushing the consumer to spend more. He said that despite a wall of resistance from the CBC and relevant departments, they ended up strengthening the legislation with provisions, with additional regulations for the Consumer Protection Service so that the consumer has a door to knock on. He added that the big challenge from now on is how to bring together the services to protect the consumer and create effective mechanisms for this issue.
EPP MP Elias Mirianthous noted that currently in the credit card operation businesses there is an oligopoly and the charges are too high for this there were reactions from a portion of businesses. The Competition Authority itself, he said, did not investigate the matter ex officio. The charges, he said, are around 3% while in other countries they are around 0.5%.
DIKO MP Chrysis Pantelides said that the whole procedure for the two law proposals is an example of good practice followed by the Parliament, since after the determination of the Energy Committee, the institutions were forced to cooperate.
Stavros Papadouris, MP of the Ecologists' Movement - Citizens' Co-operation, said that the Trade Committee decided on these proposals with the necessary prudence and rationality, while safeguards were put in place so that they have the guarantees to work. He also noted that in some products there is no profit so that some traders are forced to pay out of pocket for the use of cards.
DIKO MP Christiana Erotokritou noted that in cases of small traders, part of the cost of buying a product is paid by the trader himself. The Trade Committee, she said, should immediately correct this distortion so that it does not work against people who try to make a living by selling cigarettes and newspapers.
DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias, who chaired the plenary session, expressed his disagreement with the laws, stating that something should first be done about the high 3% charge for using a credit card.
Source: KYPE
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