A quick look at some topics relevant for the vending industry.
EU Commission to analyse vending entries on energy labelling database.
Since March last year, refrigerated vending machines must comply with Ecodesign and Energy Labelling rules, which include uploading machine data onto a common European database (EPREL).
Over the summer, EPREL became publically searchable and as such all the vending machine entries can be viewed to see the best performing machines in each category.
However a number of ‘vending machine’ entries on EPREL have some errors in their declarations including some models for example which are beverage coolers, and/or do not use the correct vending category codes, and some with declared energy ratings better than the best performing traditional vending machine. The EU Commission is aware of the issue and plans imminently to analyse and scrutinise a number of entries.
The topic will be discussed at the next machine manufacturers group (EVMMA) and the EVA Technical Committee.
Payment Services Directive (PSD) 2: EVA responds to EU Commission consultation.
The EVA has been feeding into both the external study on the impact of PSD2 and the EU Commission consultation, in order to outline our concerns with the impact on vending of the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) aspects of PSD2.
Both reports are due to be presented in the last quarter of this year and if the Commission thereafter decides to revise the Directive, our latest information indicate that this will be presented in first months of 2023.
Belgium contactless mandate: EVA clarifies law with Belgian government.
On 1 July 2022, Belgian legislation came into force requiring all consumer-facing companies to provide their customers with at least one solution that allows them to pay for their purchases electronically.
The EVA contacted the Belgian Finance Ministry to seek clarity on whether or not the obligation applied to unattended retail channels, because the text was unclear and somewhat vague. The Belgian Ministry clarified that the requirement is only for attended retail.
New tax on fluorinated greenhouse gases in Spain.
As part of the Spanish government’s tax reform, taxes are now due to be levied on all fluorinated gas entering Spain.
Although the likes of HFC r134a is banned since the start of this year in new (vending) equipment, refills of cooling units from existing stocks are still permitted. There could therefore mean an additional tax for those in vending wishing to refill units in Spain or for Spanish customers from remaining HFC r134a sourced from other EU countries.
