The claim

A receipt from the BILLA food market is said to prove that a “compulsory donation” for Ukraine in the amount of EUR 5 is charged.

Our conclusion

Customers can donate voluntarily to the “Heart for Ukraine” campaign. In this particular case, an error had occurred, which was of course corrected without any problems. The customer received her money back.

“Heart for Ukraine” fundraising campaign

BILLA, a grocery store owned by the Austrian REWE Group, introduced the “Heart for Ukraine” campaign in March. Here, as a customer, you have the opportunity to donate EUR 5 for Ukraine when you shop.

This fundraising campaign is carried out by “Neighbours in Need” . BILLA is also listed here under “Our Partners”:

“With the “Heart for Ukraine”, a symbolic donation product, customers can quickly and easily support needy Ukrainians from Thursday, March 10th. Any number of hearts can be selected and purchased in over 1,200 BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores and the BILLA online shop. The donations collected in this way are passed on at regular intervals 1:1 to NEIGHBOR IN NEED and used where they are really needed: supplying the Ukrainian civilian population with water, food, hygiene products, medical aid and heating material.”

BILLA informed about this on March 10th on its Facebook page:

"A heart for Ukraine" / Screenshot Facebook/BILLA
“Heart for Ukraine” / Screenshot Facebook/BILLA

Forced donation?

A photo of a receipt for this campaign is now circulating. It is stated that the donation was charged without the customer's consent.

MIMIKAMA
Screenshot Facebook

“A friend sent me this: without asking, they simply charge a €5 Ukraine donation… when I imagine how many people don’t take an invoice with them or don’t even check it…”

Statement from BILLA

We asked BILLA directly about this specific case and received the following information:

“We would like to clarify here: BILLA, together with BIPA, launched a call for donations for the Neighbors in Need relief campaign in March 2022. At BILLA and BIPA you can buy a symbolic “Heart for Ukraine” for €5 each and use it to support people in need. This donation is of course voluntary and will only be added to the purchase at the request of our customers. In this specific case, it was unfortunately a one-off mistake on the part of our employee who mistakenly arrived at the barcode for redemption - the customer in question was immediately refunded the money and of course our employee apologized profusely for the error.”

BILLA 's Facebook post announcing the campaign also asked - without direct reference to the receipt and possibly misunderstood - whether this was a kind of "forced donation", whereupon the social media team pointed out that it was voluntary:

MIMIKAMA
Screenshot Facebook

Conclusion

BILLA's “Heart for Ukraine” campaign was set up in collaboration with “Neighbor in Need” to support Ukrainians in need. You can make a voluntary donation when making a purchase here.

In the specific case of the circulating receipt, an error occurred and the amount of EUR 5 was incorrectly calculated. Of course, the customer received the amount back and the employee apologized for her mistake.

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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )