Facua Consumidores en Acción – a Spanish consumer protection NGO – is attacking a sunglasses retailer for refusing to accept cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More, arguing that this practice goes against the Spanish civil code and local laws. The organisation complained to the Department of Trade and Consumer Affairs of Madrid – where the cash-free store is based – and asked for sanctions.
The incriminated company is Hawkers, a Spanish online sunglasses shop created in 2012. Recently, Hawkers opened its first physical store in Madrid, where hard cash is rejected. The company wants to promote digital technologies and it openly declared it considers cash obsolete. What’s more, the brand might soon accept payments in bitcoins. With this stance, the company is closing its doors to potential customers that rely exclusively on cash. Indeed, sunglasses are a popular and generally essential product for all echelons of society, including teenagers, who are generally not part of the banking system, and the elderly, who are rarely acquainted with digital instruments.
This is the first time that a company publicly refuses cash in Spain. Facua firmly believes that rejecting a payment methodSee Payment instrument. More that is the country’s legal tenderMoney that is legally valid for the payment of debts and must be accepted for that purpose when offered. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered (“tendered”) in payment of a debt extinguishes the debt. There is no obligation on the creditor to accept the tendered payment, but the act of tendering the payment in legal tender discharges the debt. More is against consumer rights. It will be interesting to see how the Madrid authorities will handle the matter, which may serve as a precedent for the future. Regardless, refusal of a payment instrumentDevice, tool, procedure or system used to make a transaction or settle a debt. More so widely used as cash represents a form of discrimination and goes against consumer’s freedom of choice.
To read the original [Spanish] article, please click here.