The regulation ‘Description of critical services and resilience requirements for the supply of liquid fuel’ of the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology was supplemented with a requirement that a liquid fuel seller providing critical services must ensure that, in an emergency or other similar situations, it is possible to make card payments without a network connection within the limit of the service provider, even if there is no communication link.
Fuel retailers with ten or more refuelling stations across Estonia, located in at least three counties, are considered providers of critical services. These refuelling station chains are also required to have emergency fuel tanks with increased resilience.
Without a communication link, offline card payments give people an additional option to pay with a bank card within the limit of the service provider in a crisis situation and are an alternative to paying with cash or with the refuelling station loyalty card.
The new requirement is in line with the regulation of Eesti Pank, which sets out that banks providing critical services must enable offline card transactions. Its implementation in refuelling stations will help achieve the objectives of payment system resilience and ensure better security of supply for the whole society.
