The new cash register security ordinance initiated by legislators is causing a lot of confusion across industries. The parking sector is also affected by the new regulation. However, what parking management has to do with an ordinance to protect against manipulation of electronic cash register systems and cash registers and what concrete consequences this has for the parking industry is explained in this article.

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What is the Cash Insurance Ordinance?
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The Cash Security Ordinance is a binding ordinance issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance, which declares war on the manipulation of electronic or computer-based cash register systems and cash registers. To do this, the cash registers must be upgraded with a so-called technical security device (TSE), which stores all cash register transactions in a tamper-proof manner and can be exported for audit purposes. In addition, an individual signature is created for each transaction and sent back to the cash register and noted on the receipt. Due to a non-complaint regulation by the federal states, a corresponding technical upgrade or new purchase must only be carried out by 31.03.2021, provided that a corresponding order has been placed by 30.09.2020 at the latest.

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What are the specific effects for park management?
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But now to the specific consequences for park management. The cash register security ordinance described above becomes relevant for parking space operators when parking ticket machines fall under the electronic or computer-based cash register systems and cash registers category and are not to be understood as service machines within the meaning of § 1 paragraph 1 sentence 2 Kassensicherungsverordnung (KassenSichV), which are explicitly excluded from the ordinance. A dispute has already been sparked between the federal and state governments over this point, as the former does not see parking ticket machines as service machines. The only exception is parking ticket machines, which do not have cash payment options. Both private and municipal parking operators are therefore affected by the decision of the Federal Ministry of Finance. The countries, on the other hand, are clearly in favour of exempting parking ticket machines from the regulation, also in the interest of practicality.

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There is much misunderstanding among municipalities and private parking operators about the position of the Federal Ministry of Finance. Upgrading or purchasing new parking ticket machines is difficult to carry out in the short term and would also result in enormous costs.

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Avoiding the upgrade costs of parking ticket machines
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A more sustainable solution here offers App payment, which is carried out by automatic and privacy-compliant license plate recognition is made possible. In most cases, the costs of switching to sustainable, barrier-free parking space management are significantly lower than a complex upgrade and conversion with TSE-compliant parking machines.

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It seems as though there will be no peace anytime soon on the issue surrounding the Cash Security Ordinance, and developments in the case of parking ticket machines can also be watched eagerly over the coming weeks. Also because there are already exceptions for applications similar to ticket machines, ATMs or taximeters.

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_{Image source:
Scott Graham}