"It was the State which forced companies to stop and it cannot plead force majeure"

5/20/2020, 6:53:05 PM

TRIBUNE - By ordering a confinement which was only one of the possible choices, the public authorities are accountable for the damage suffered by business leaders and self-employed workers and they must compensate them, argues lawyer Jean-Philippe Delsol.

"No business will be left at risk of bankruptcy." This was the declaration of the President of the Republic on March 16, 2020. Since then, the crisis has turned out to be much more serious in economic terms than it was first estimated and many industrialists, farmers, traders, artisans and other independent professionals may have to declare bankruptcy.

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Admittedly, the State quickly put in place measures to help companies in difficulty: extension of deadlines, relief and possible abandonment of social charges for very small companies, technical unemployment, loans guaranteed by the State, improvements deadlines, easier use of fixed-term contracts and temporary workers But that will not always be enough, in particular for certain small businesses and in the sectors of tourism, hotel, catering, events, in danger.

Faced with this announced catastrophe, beyond the emergency measures rightly taken, the solution is undoubtedly not in an accumulation