No. Liège taxes every self-checkout till €519 a year because it replaces a cashier job that existed. A uNobo Connect store replaces no job at all: it opens at hours and in places where no shop, staffed or unattended, was open before. These are different categories, and the network’s own data proves it.
In October 2025, Liège’s city council unanimously approved a €519-a-year tax on every self-checkout till installed in a shop, effective in 2026. The city expects about €77,000 a year in revenue. Retailers have already appealed the ordinance to Belgium’s Council of State. The council’s logic is simple: a self-checkout till takes the spot where a cashier used to stand, so whoever replaces that job compensates the city. It’s a coherent argument for what it targets. And it’s exactly the argument that doesn’t apply to what we do.
What the Liège tax is actually about
A supermarket’s self-checkout till sits where a person used to ring up purchases. The shop stays open the same hours, with the same staff doing other tasks, but one or more till positions disappear from the roster. There’s a before with a cashier and an after without one, in the same shop, during the same hours. That substitution is what Liège is taxing, and it’s a legitimate position for a city council trying to protect local jobs.
The 24h unattended store never had that “before”
A store on the uNobo Connect network doesn’t open where a staffed shop used to be before closing to make room for machines. It opens where nothing was open at that hour, period. An industrial estate with nothing open past eight in the evening. A small town without a single 24-hour shop. A residential area where the nearest supermarket closes at ten at night. There’s no cashier to replace because there was no till. What the unattended store puts on the table isn’t a headcount substitution: it’s a time slot that had no shop at all before it existed.
The network’s data backs that up with a concrete number: 45.9% of uNobo Connect network sales in Spain happen between 10pm and 7am. Aggregated uNobo Connect network data as of 27/05/2026. Anonymised metrics. Auditable under NDA. Nearly half the business happens in a window where, at most of the network’s locations, no staffed shop is competing for that customer. There’s no job to replace at that hour because nobody is working that hour.
Why the distinction matters beyond Liège
What Liège approved is a municipal ordinance, local in scope and under appeal in the courts. Today no rule treats the 24h unattended store the same as a self-checkout till. But the industry takes it as a given that smart vending, smart fridges and unattended retail will keep expanding across Europe through 2026, and the more the format grows, the more it enters the radar of whoever legislates on commerce and jobs. The risk isn’t that Liège’s tax lands on us tomorrow. The risk is that, if the debate spreads to other countries, two things that don’t look alike get measured with the same yardstick: replacing a job that existed, and opening a service in a time slot where none existed. Confusing the two would tax access, not lost employment.
What we do about that
That’s why the time-slot figure lives published and auditable, not filed away in an internal report. If someone ever asks whether a uNobo Connect store replaces a job, the answer doesn’t depend on our word: it depends on what time the sale happened, and that data is already public. Being honest about what the format is, and what it isn’t, is the best defense a new sector has against a regulation that doesn’t understand it yet.
uRetail S.L. has run the network’s pioneer market in Spain for four years, under the Flappers brand. Portugal, Italy, France and Germany are the priority markets for the next Country Partner, and the rest of Europe remains equally open, with no partner assigned.
If you operate or want to lead unattended retail in one of those markets, this is a distinction worth having clear before a regulator draws it for you. Write to info@bonoboservices.com or use the form at bonoboservices.com.
Román Suárez, Founder of Bonobo Services OÜ