Thanks to Swissbit WORM SD Card

Sharp Electronic Corp., manufacturer of cash registers and electronic point-of-sale terminals, announces with its partner Swissbit AG the introduction of solutions that comply with new French fiscal law for the retail sector: an update for 9 current Sharp cash registers and a brand new range of 9 alphanumeric cash registers now make fraud impossible.

In order to combat VAT fraud related to the concealment of revenues, French merchants and other professionals subject to VAT will be obliged, as from January 1 2018, to use a secured and certified cash register system, satisfying the legal requirements of data inalterability, security, storage and archiving.

To respond to this new legislation, Sharp now offers a fiscal update for its 9 alphanumeric cash registers offering the widest possibility of certification of the existing fleet (models XEA147BK, XEA177BK, XEA177WH, XEA207B, XEA207W, XEA217B, XEA307W, ERA411, ERA421, and in October 2017, UP3515.)

Sharp-Swissbit fiscal solution offers security

• With a special WORM SD card for security applications used as storage media, the user’s fiscal records are ready for inspection either locally or remotely by digitally signed secure archives.

• The cash register can not perform any transactions until the SD WORM card is inserted, which ensures that all transactions are recorded. In addition, the SD card is permanently and cryptographically linked to the cash register on which it was initialized. The origin of the data is therefore certain for the tax administration.
• All transactions are recorded on the SD card upon issuing of a receipt. And no transaction is lost, even in the event of a breakdown.
• The use of WORM flash cards is also reliable because the content stored in the card can not be deliberately or unintentionally modified or deleted.
• A digital signature with the ECDSA 521-bit algorithm makes it possible to safely archive data as required by law without risk of manipulation. Such a hardware based security solution is superior to softward based solutions, which may require regular re-auditing after each software update.

In parallel, Sharp announced last June the commercialization of a new range of 9 certified cash registers: 7 models of XEA range: XEA147BKSF, XEA177BKSF, XEA177WHSF, XEA207BSF, XEA207WSF, XEA217BSF, XEA307SF and 2 models of ERA range: ERA411SF and ERA421SF.

Merchants and users of Sharp cash registers thus have an integrated system that secures and archives data, is as intuitive as the use of a SIM-Card and does not slow down the payment process.

“Thanks to the Sharp fiscal update, our ECR systems are a reliable and lasting solution for thousands of professionals in France. Catering and hotel merchants using the Sharp certification scheme or investing in new certified solutions will fully meet the legal and legislative requirements that will come into force in early 2018,” said Nathalie Chamblain, business Systems Southern Europe marketing director, Sharp France.

Sharp has been a manufacturer of electronic cash registers and electronic point-of-sale terminals for more than 30 years and has one of the largest range on the market and has products that meet the needs of retail business.

“Given its extreme performance, we expect the solution to be well received in the market. All legally required processes take place automatically on the card in less than 20ms after data transfer. The sales transaction is not slowed down by the process, which was a major problem for cash registers in the eyes of customers until then,” explains Hubertus Grobbel, Swissbit.