Several weeks of cacophonies and a volley of contradictory legal decisions have forced the government to take a step back on the application of the health pass in shopping centers.
Reassured by the improvement in the health situation, Bercy clarified and relaxed its rules on Monday.
From Wednesday, the pass will no longer apply in shopping centers in departments where the incidence rate has fallen below the level of 200 Covid cases per 100,000 inhabitants for a full week. Eighteen departments are released from this constraint, and the pass will only apply in nine departments and 64 shopping centers. At the height of the restrictions, it had been in effect in 27 departments and 178 centers. "
This is very good news,"
says Jacques Creyssel, the general delegate of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD).
This decision reverses the situation. Shopping centers are no longer subject to the health pass, with some exceptions
. ”
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The National Council of Shopping Centers (CNCC) is still asking for the removal of a measure that is very expensive for the sector.
In August, sales in the affected malls fell by 32% compared to the same month of 2019. Worse, all malls ended up suffering from a measure that was difficult to understand.
The law establishing the health pass left it to the prefects to apply it in centers of more than 20,000 m2, in departments where the incidence rate is greater than 200. But some prefects have imposed it in departments where this threshold was not crossed ...
In addition, whatever the threshold, several court decisions have suspended in recent days prefectural decrees imposing the pass.
Reason: the measure did not allow all customers access to essential shops (hypermarkets, pharmacies) located in shopping centers.
Avoid a snub from the Council of State
At the same time, other court decisions have, on the contrary, validated similar orders.
“
Nobody understands anything, the confusion is total
, deplores the spokesperson for a sign present in shopping centers.
Only one message has passed: the health pass is required in shopping centers, period
. "
Sales fell 21% in all French shopping centers, according to the CNCC. The drop in attendance is all the more damaging as it takes place at "
a period of double counting for the sector
", deplores Gontran Thüring, the general delegate of the CNCC. Back-to-school shopping is usually done during the last week of August and the first week of September. For some brands, like teenage fashion label Jennyfer, the last three weeks are even "
the most important of the year, before Christmas
".
The government is aware of the importance of the shock caused by the measure. On August 30, Bruno Le Maire estimated that the pass had
"no impact on the country's economic activity with one or two exceptions
", including large shopping centers. By easing the grip of constraints on Monday, the government may also have wanted to avoid a potential snub from the Council of State, which was to rule on appeal on Wednesday on the legality of several prefectural decrees.
Shopping centers are now hoping that the current decline in the epidemic will result in removing the requirement to present a health pass to shop there. "
Seine-Saint-Denis and the Rhône, two departments which have a large number of shopping centers, already have an incidence rate of less than 200
," notes Jacques Creyssel.
And many departments are close to 200.
"
