Rounding off of receipt to 5 eurocents now for electronic payments as well

Last September 18th, the Council of Ministers approved a preliminary draft Act concerning various financial provisions. This bill provides that companies and liberal professions may round off the amount that the consumer must pay to them up to 5 eurocents, regardless of the method of payment. The Act of 15 May 2014 already provided a possibility for companies and liberal professions to round off if cash was paid, with the objective of reducing use of the 1 and 2-cent coins. These regulations entered into force - via the Royal Decree of 22 September 2014 - on 1 October 2014, and can be found in Article VI.7/1 of the Economic Law Code. However, the present bill provides that this rounding off may be done in the event of electronic payment as well.

The amount that the consumer must pay is rounded-off:

• to the nearest lower multiple of 5 cents, if the total amount to be paid ends with 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents;
• to the nearest higher multiple of 5 cents, if the total amount to be paid ends with 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents.

The rounding off applies only for the total amount to be paid at the cash register, and not for each purchased product separately. The rounding off must be explicitly stated on each document that sets forth the total amount to be paid.

The company must inform the consumer that the amount to be paid is rounded off to 5 cents. This information is given by means of a pictogram corresponding to the model in an annex to the Royal Decree of 22 September 2014.

The preliminary draft that was approved last September 18th also eliminates the exception to the rounding-off rules for medicinal products.

For more information on this particular topic, you can consult Lesley Jorgensen (author) and Gwen Bevers (head of department).