§8.4 Payments in foreign cash

Cash payment in foreign currency is also a ‘means of payment’ within the meaning of Article 19. Therefore, a trader should not use currency conversion as a method of actually imposing payment surcharges on the consumer that are not justified by the actual costs incurred in offering the option of paying in foreign cash (in particular, the costs borne by the trader to convert the cash received). — For example, where a trader operating a restaurant in a remote area accepts, as an exception, a cash payment by a tourist in a foreign currency, the exchange rate applied can be slightly higher than the actual one, to cover the extraordinary cost of the trader’s trip to the nearest bank and any fees applied by the bank for the exchange.; — However, applying an excessive exchange rate in the above scenario would infringe Article 19 since the revenues from such a transaction would substantially exceed the extraordinary costs; — By contrast, where accepting foreign cash as means of payment is a standard commercial practice for the trader, only the applicable currency exchange fees are likely to be eligible costs. This will be, for example, a situation of a restaurant located in a resort area that is frequently servicing tourists who pay in foreign cash.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07