By akademiotoelektronik, 15/04/2022

Restaurant vouchers: will the ceiling of 38 euros be maintained after August 31?

Last year, the government relaxed the rules for using restaurant vouchers to support restaurateurs. A boost supposed to end on August 31st.

The measure was presented as "a powerful tool for reviving the activity of restaurateurs". After the spring 2020 confinement, the government decided to modify the rules for using the restaurant voucher. For more than a year now, the four million French employees who benefit from it have been able to use this means of payment on Sundays and public holidays. The daily ceiling was raised from 19 to 38 euros, while the vouchers issued in 2020 saw their validity date extended beyond the end of February.

And the results are largely positive: "There has been a real return, these measures have immediately borne fruit", observes Romain Vidal, president of the college of restaurateurs within the National Commission for Restaurant Vouchers (CNRT). According to him, the average ticket for the restaurant ticket has increased by around 4 to 5 euros thanks to the raising of the ceiling, and even by 7 euros at Edenred. And issuers have seen an increase in its use on Sundays of between "5 and 10 points".

But this boost to restaurateurs is only temporary. The relaxation of the rules decided in June 2020 must end on August 31. And there is no indication for the time being that it will be extended. Contacted, Bercy says he is "analyzing the situation" and assures that "the decision has not yet been made". The government should decide "after mid-August". The stakes are high: the restaurant ticket market is worth 7 billion euros in France.

An extension that will depend on the extent of the recovery

A return to pre-crisis rules would involve restoring the ceiling to 19 euros and ending the use of restaurant vouchers on Sundays and public holidays. Tickets issued in 2020 would no longer be valid from 1 September. For Romain Vidal, the decision of the executive will depend above all on the summer activity of restaurateurs and the value of restaurant vouchers that employees still have:

He nevertheless expects that the ceiling of 38 euros will not be permanent. In which case, he still calls for "modernizing" the restaurant title with a new "reasonable ceiling" between 19 and 38 euros and which is "not just temporary".

For his part, Franck Delvau wants the securities issued in 2020 and not used "to be extended at least until the end of the year", as well as the ceiling of 38 euros. Necessary support when "the situation of our establishments will be very complicated from August" with the implementation of the health pass, he predicts, based on the first assessments of its application in the places of culture where attendance drops by "60% on average".

Restaurant owners want a gesture from issuing companies

If restaurateurs wish to obtain an extension of the current rules for the use of restaurant tickets, they have also been fighting for several years for the issuers (Edenred, Natixis, Sodexo, etc.) to agree to a reduction in the commissions levied on transactions carried out via this mode. of payment. "We are on an average of 4% HT", laments Romain Vidal. They are thus calling for a cap on these same commissions, believing that restaurateurs do not have to finance a system which is already financed by employers and employees.

On the same subject

A little over a month ago, the GNI, employers' association of independent hotel and catering workers, called on restaurateurs to unite to obtain legal compensation for the damage caused by the anti-competitive practices of issuing companies. Which were sentenced in 2019 to a fine of 415 million euros after agreeing to slow down the development of the dematerialization of securities (by card) and thus prevent new players from entering this market.

https://twitter.com/paul_louis_ Paul Louis Journalist BFM Eco