A cafe in Amsterdam was entirely digital. Had no paper menu. I had to borrow a personal smartphone from the staff to see the menu and to place an order. After paying, I asked for a receipt. They said they only give receipts by email. And because I borrowed a phone from a staff member, the receipt went to their email address. So if I were willing to supply an e-mail address, it would not matter because they had no control over that – could not retroactively send a receipt copy. They had no printer to print a receipt.

The payment services directive (PSD) says:

Article 57
Information for the payer on individual payment transactions
1. After the amount of an individual payment transaction is debited from the payer’s account or, where the payer does not use a payment account, after receipt of the payment order, the payer’s payment service provider shall provide the payer, without undue delay and in the same way as laid down in Article 51(1), with all of the following information:
(a) a reference enabling the payer to identify each payment transaction and, where appropriate, information relating to the payee;
(b) the amount of the payment transaction in the currency in which the payer’s payment account is debited or in the currency used for the payment order;
© the amount of any charges for the payment transaction and, where applicable, a breakdown of the amounts of such charges, or the interest payable by the payer;
(d) where applicable, the exchange rate used in the payment transaction by the payer’s payment service provider, and the amount of the payment transaction after that currency conversion;
(e) the debit value date or the date of receipt of the payment order.

IIUC, by preconditioning the above info on having an email address, they are infringing on the law. Correct?

It’s rough reading because it says this obligation is on “the payer’s payment service provider”. Who is that? What does that mean? The payment service provider would be the merchant’s, no?

On the payer’s side of this, there is only their bank. The “without undue delay” bit seems to suggest this refers to a receipt on the spot, as banks generally only send a statement of account once per month.