Val d’Oise. Health pass in shopping centers: “the prefect violated the law”

Unlike those of Yvelines, Essonne or Hauts-de-Seine, the large ccommercial entrances of Val-d’Oise did not win their case for the health pass obligatory.

On Wednesday September 1, 2021, the administrative court of Cergy-Pontoise rejected the application for interim relief against the prefectural decree requiring the presentation of the sanitary pass in areas of more than 20,000 m2, i.e. eight department stores and shopping centers in Val-d ‘Oise *. An instruction given by the government to the prefects of the departments where the incidence rate exceeds 200 cases of Covid-19 contamination per 100,000 inhabitants.

“Protection of public health”

The judge in interim relief considered that this request for interim relief, due to the urgency, was not justified “having regard to the public interest in protecting public health and controlling the epidemic”.

A surprising decision highlights for the lawyer of the hypermarket E.Leclerc de Moisselles and two other applicants at the origin of the appeal, Me Yoann Sibille who indicated that he was going to appeal to the Council of State.

The same judge had rendered a decision in the completely opposite direction for the department of Hauts-de-Seine, considering this time that there was an urgent need to rule.

A “worrying” health situation

In his conclusions, the judge underlines as well as unlike that of Hauts-de-Seine, the epidemiological situation in the department of Val-d’Oise, “remains degraded and worrying, with in particular an incidence rate in continuous increase since June 29, 2021 ”.

While at the entry into force of the decree the incidence rate was 200.9 cases per 100,000 people, it had risen to 203 when the appeal was filed last week, before dropping back below the 200 mark. Start of the week. It stood at 192.5 on Wednesday, September 1.

Economic consequences

“The court took into account elements of a health nature, which did not have to be taken into account to consider that there was no urgency to rule,” said the council. He made prevail a public interest of protection of public health, coming to completely erase the important consequences of this measure. “

This has particularly economic consequences for the E.Leclerc hypermarket, which has seen its turnover drop by 27% since the introduction of the health pass. A hypermarket which, moreover, makes work “multiple local producers”, notes the lawyer who also recalls that in terms of labor law “the employees of the shops of the shopping center who do not have a health pass see their contracts suspended since August 30 ”.

“The prefect violated the law”

Beyond the economic aspect, Me Yoann Sibille notes that “the basic issue relating to the legality of the prefectural decree has not at all been dealt with by the court”. He thus denounces the lack of compliance with the law of August 5, 2021 authorizing the establishment of a health pass in shopping centers by prefectural decree “under conditions guaranteeing people’s access to essential goods and services as well, where appropriate, than to the means of transport. “

However, the summary judge writes in his order that “by enacting this decree, the prefect of Val-d’Oise tainted his decision with a manifest illegality which, given its effects, infringes the freedom of of the applicant company and the freedom to come and go of its clients. “.

“It therefore confirms that the prefect violated the law and that the argument developed since the appeal in the Yvelines is correct”, concludes Me Yoann Sibille.

* The eight stores and shopping centers subject to the health pass: Côté Seine in Argenteuil; Les 3-Fontaines in Cergy; Ikea in Franconville; Ikea Paris-Nord Roissy in Gonesse; Leclerc Modo in Moisselles; Carrefour in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt; My Place in Sarcelles; -Les Portes de Taverny.

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