Security Measures for Card Transactions Reinforced

The Secretariat of Domestic Trade issued Resolution 87/2024, establishing that all commercial establishments accepting credit, purchase, or debit cards must bring electronic payment terminals (e.g., PosNet) before consumers, so they do not lose sight of their card or have their card taken away from their control when paying, not even for a moment.

The main target is to reduce computer fraud, which is increasingly frequent and which is carried out by collecting card data to commit crimes (e.g., to make purchases in the cardholder's name through the Internet). This causes serious damages to consumers. To better understand the risk this Resolution seeks to mitigate, according to the latest Monthly Report on Retail Payments issued by the Argentine Central Bank, over 450 million card transactions were made in Argentina during January 2024.

The practice the Resolution establishes is very common in the US and in European countries, where payment terminals are normally handed to the customer, and only the customer handles the card. Further, it follows the trend in provinces such as Río Negro (Law 5648), Neuquén (Law 3318), and La Pampa (Law 3561), where similar regulations have been passed.

Suppliers must adapt their services according to the provisions of this Resolution before September 8, 2024, and any non-compliance will be sanctioned according to the provisions of article 47, Law 24240 of Consumer Defense. Definitively, this is a measure to protect consumers, reinforcing security mechanisms and guaranteeing reliability in these types of transactions.