Parlor meltdown over ‘cashless’ crackdown

This city rule makes no cents, according to Big Apple businesses suffering under a ban on cashless establishments.

Upscale ice-cream parlor Van Leeuwen has been slapped with $12,750 in fines across its New York City locations for not accepting legal tender, one of the many city merchants dinged for violating the year-old ban.

The city has gone after 23 businesses for violations. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection received 152 complaints about cashless businesses across the city, the agency said. So far, 16 businesses have been found guilty by the city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), with a total of $23,850 issued in fines.

Councilman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) said the crackdown has been unfair.

“These agencies weaponize our statutes to torment small businesses in this city,” he said. “This is about raising revenue for the city.”

The city received six complaints about Van Leeuwen’s cashless stores since November 2020, when the ban went into effect, according to agency spokeswoman Carmel Agnant.

Under the law, stores must accept cash unless they have a machine to convert cash to a prepaid card. They cannot charge more for paying in cash, Agnant said.

Supporters of the ban said going cashless discriminates against minors and poor people who may not have bank accounts or credit cards.

“The City of New York cannot allow the digital economy to leave behind the 25 percent of New Yorkers who are chronically unbanked and underbanked,” thenCouncilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), the bill’s sponsor, said at the time of its passage.

Ben Van Leeuwen, the parlor’s co-founder, denied the violations, saying he had not refused cash payment because “no one has offered it,” the city said.

But the city submitted affidavits and photographs of signs in windows saying they do not accept cash, according to OATH, which noted that Van Leeuwen “expressed his dismay that this provision of law existed and was being enforced when there were more important problems in the world.”

Reps for the restaurant industry noted the advantages of going cashless during a pandemic.

“We understand the equity issue,” Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, said. “However, going cashless presents operational opportunities for small businesses, as well. Especially in a time of COVID, customers and workers may feel safer.”

Cash-free also means some peace of mind for workers worried about crime, advocates said.

“Not having cash on site would mean less likely to have any sort of theft,” said Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association.

Consumer Affairs defended the enforcement: “Cashless businesses isolate the more than 300,000 unbanked households in NYC from making transactions, as well as those who simply choose not to use plastic.”

These agencies weaponize our statutes to torment small businesses. Councilman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), on the city’s cashless-biz-ban enforcement