D.C. Bans Cashless Businesses

Writing in Smart Cities Dive, Paige Gross explains a “newly enforced” Washington, D.C. law that prohibits businesses from eliminating cash transactions. “Under the newly enforced law, it’s illegal for direct-to-consumer businesses — including bars, restaurants, general retailers and food stores — to refuse cash, charge a higher price to cash-paying customers or hang signs that say cash isn’t accepted.”

The law exempts online transactions and some parking garages. Other businesses must accept cash or provide a device on site where customers can convert cash to a prepaid card. Cashless payments, which some business owners consider safer than handling and transporting cash, became more popular in the wake of the pandemic, when social distancing called for touchless transactions.

Supporters of the ban say cashless transactions discriminate against ‘unbanked’ residents, who make up 8 percent of the D.C. population. Cashless businesses “make it exceptionally hard for marginalized groups to carry on with their everyday lives, said Harry Hayman, a senior fellow for the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia’s Food Economy and Policy.”