The government is accelerating administrative dematerialization. Guest of Franceinfo, Monday October 2, the Minister Delegate for Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade, Olivia Grégoire, announced the dematerialization of meal vouchers “before 2026”, in particular, to make the procedure less costly for restaurateurs.
According to her, five million employees today use meal vouchers, but “a quarter of restaurateurs refuse them because it is too complicated [to juggle between paper and card]”. “The commissions are too high and the procedures much too cumbersome” for restaurateurs who “lack cash flow,” she adds.
The minister “commissioned the Competition Authority several months ago to see if the operation of the Ticket Restaurant market was fair”. The result of this investigation is expected “in the coming days” and “if there was a proven market dysfunction”, the minister would not hesitate to “capping commissions”, currently between 3%. and 5%, she assured. “And we will cap them rather at the floor than at the ceiling,” clarified the minister.
Restaurateurs pay a commission to the companies issuing meal vouchers, taken from the amount paid to them by their customers. Thus, for a meal paid for 10 euros in meal vouchers, with a commission between 3% and 5%, the restaurateur pays between 30 cents and 50 cents.
The companies issuing meal vouchers Edenred, Up, Natixis Intertitres and Sodexo were ordered in 2019 by the Competition Authority to pay 415 million in fines for anti-competitive practices, and the appeal decision should be rendered this year.