Do you want to pay with a gift certificate? You can, but the conditions have changed!

Did you receive a certificate / card as a gift and want to pay for your chosen product on the Internet? Be careful! Currently, you can do this if the amount of the certificate / card does not exceed 50 euros. The rest of the amount, if the product is more expensive, you must pay by other means, for example, pay with a payment card or regular bank transfer.

What is the reason?

Effective May 21, 2020 in the Netherlands Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (De vijfde anti-witwasrichtlijn 2018/843 – AMLD5)... A fairly clear implementation of this directive was made by one of the world's largest consulting companies KPMG (KPMG) - you can familiarize yourself with it by following the link (in English) As a result of the adoption of this Directive in Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme - Wwft) amendments were made on various issues, in particular on the issue of gift certificates / cards.

According to the Fifth Directive, today it is possible to use gift certificates / cards offline (i.e. for standard personal purchases of goods in a store) up to 150 euros at a time. Before the adoption of AMLD5, this amount was 250 euros per purchase.

The introduced norms relate to gift certificates / cards that can be used to pay in many stores. These include VVV Cadeaukaart VVV, Online Cadeaucode and Nederlandse Boekenbon. For the prevention of money laundering legislation in the Netherlands, the funds on gift certificates are electronic money and are subject to the relevant regulation. In this regard, there is an assumption that illegally obtained cash can be used to purchase gift certificates / cards, and, subsequently, can be "exchanged" for large purchases. In other words, it is also a form of money laundering that is punishable by law.

Currently, there are companies in the Dutch market that deal, among other things, with the programming of gift certificates / cards. In connection with the changes, they set limits on them, at which the client cannot spend, for example, more than 50 euros when shopping online. Or the purchase will be canceled.

Our help. Every year, gifts worth 1,5 billion euros are bought with certificates / cards. Most gift certificates / cards were used in the industry hospitality (hotels-restaurants-cafes)