We will have to continue to present the health pass to go shopping.
The Cergy administrative court ruled on Wednesday on the prefectural decree which implements this obligation in shopping centers.
He was seized by three applicants, including the supermarket E.Leclerc de Moisselles, assisted by Mr. Yoann Sibille, who had already illustrated on this subject by obtaining the suspension of this measure in Yvelines.
The same decision was then taken by the courts in Yvelines, Essonne and Hauts-de-Seine.
In Paris, on the other hand, the administrative court considered that there was no urgent need to rule.
The same decision was made for the Val-d'Oise.
The summary judge considered that the request for interim relief was not justified "having regard to the public interest in protecting public health and controlling the epidemic".
"They consider that the health problem is taking over", summarizes Me Yoann Sibille.
"The prefect had made his decision with regard to the health situation in Val-d'Oise, which remains worrying," argues the prefecture.
An incidence rate of 193
When the decree came into force, the incidence rate was 200.9 cases per 100,000 people and the occupancy rate of intensive care beds was 41.3%.
Two weeks later, when the parties presented their arguments, those figures were 203% and 65.4%, respectively.
"The average incidence rate is now 193. We have only been below 200 since last Monday," recalls the prefecture.
Read also Val-d'Oise: the sanitary pass required at the entrance to the eight shopping centers of more than 20,000 m²
Me Sibille had justified the recourse to this emergency procedure by pointing out the economic consequences of the health pass for the supermarket, the shops of the shopping mall and the customers.
“The applicant company has seen, since the entry into force of the decree, its attendance and its turnover fall by 27.5% on average;
other shops in the shopping arcade seeing their turnover drop by around 40%, ”notes the summary judge.
The prefecture replied that the supermarket had not provided the turnover for the first half of August, which did not allow, according to it, to compare the situations.
She also argues that unvaccinated people can easily go shopping if they get tested first.
The lawyer announces to appeal
But the main argument raised by Me Yoann Sibille concerned compliance with the law of August 5, 2021. The latter authorizes the prefects to issue a decree to set up the health pass in shopping centers "under conditions guaranteeing access to people to basic goods and services as well as, where appropriate, to means of transport. However, for the lawyer, this guarantee is not respected by the prefectural decree. And this is also what the judge in summary proceedings considers.
"Thus, by enacting this decree, the prefect of Val-d'Oise tainted his decision with a manifest illegality which, given its effects, infringes the entrepreneurial freedom of the applicant company and the to come and go of its customers, ”writes the judge. This assessment leads one to think that the administrative court should therefore annul this decree when it examines it on the merits. However, this decision should not come before… two years. The rest should happen in the next few days before the Council of State, because Me Yoann Sibille has announced that he will appeal.
