The images left very little doubt. The riots caused far more damage than the Yellow Vest protests in 2019, or even the urban violence of the fall of 2005. The amount of the potential bill is dizzying: 650 million euros in declared claims, according to data communicated by the Federation of Insurance, Tuesday, July 11. Three times more than in 2005, when the riots lasted three weeks, much more than those that occurred last month for 5 days.
35% of this cost relates to public infrastructure – nearly 1,500 public buildings would have been degraded; 55%, property of professionals and traders, knowing that these claims weigh in number a little more than a third of those declared. In all, 11,300 claims have already been reported to insurance companies. “Damage and fires to vehicles represented 82% of claims at the time for a much lower total cost of 204 million euros,” recalls the Insurance Federation in a press release.
These costs should increase a little more, because, exceptionally, it is possible to declare damage resulting from riots up to thirty days after the fact, and not five days as the general rule.
However, many companies are not sure that all their damage will be covered by their insurance – it all depends on their contract and the flexibility of their companies. Negotiations are underway at the Ministry of the Economy, between federations and companies. The government wishes at all costs to avoid conflicts, as was the case during the confinements linked to the pandemic.
On the sidelines of a trip to Marseille on July 7, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, called on “insurers to do what is necessary to compensate quickly and […] not to use all the possible legal quibbles of contracts” . Hundreds and hundreds of merchants have seen their stores looted and ransacked, in the middle of the sales period, a crucial moment for the life of their businesses.
At the beginning of July, the outgoing president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, had mentioned to the Parisian a deliberately imprecise, but shocking figure: he estimated the cost of the riots at at least “1 billion euros”. The employers’ organization includes compensation for claims but also business interruption and the cost of partial unemployment.
