The payment limit with the POS raised to 60 euros is detrimental to local trade. This is confirmed by Rimini’s advisor for economic activities, Juri Magrini, who instead asks for a reduction in commissions.
Moving the electronic payment obligation above €60 would discourage purchases in nearby stores by consumers increasingly accustomed to online commerce: it would be a help for large platforms such as Amazon. This is what Rimini’s municipal councilor for economic activities, Juri Magrini, thinks, who recently publicly asked his fellow citizens to shop in physical stores on the occasion of Black Friday.
“Ironically, this proposal made by the government – says Magrini -, which I think will be difficult for parliament to amend now, will do nothing but make it easier to pass more on online platforms, because now we all use technological tools that have seen tremendous development in the past two years.” Therefore, for the commissioner, “a return to cash of less than 60 euros would only facilitate the large platforms, which I do not think are in dire need of this gift.”
The risk, for Magrini, is that a consumer who “finds himself unable to pay” with POS “doesn’t make the purchase” in the physical store. For him, this is “the paradox, because I think that the government would rather want to facilitate trade, but in doing so it would do exactly the opposite”.
Traders complain about the exorbitant cost of commissions on electronic payments that are added to the rental of positions. The council’s call is “for institutions, government and trade associations to act so that commissions for POS-type instruments are eliminated and thus increasingly facilitated with electronic money as a tool to aid trade.”