Restaurant vouchers: the National Assembly approves their continued use in supermarkets

Restaurant vouchers can continue to be used for shopping at the supermarket: deputies voted on Monday for a bill perpetuating this possibility, despite the concerns of restaurateurs, who are calling for more favorable treatment compared to large retailers. Around six million employees benefit from meal vouchers, purchase vouchers partly financed by employers and intended, originally, to pay for their lunch during their working day.

For the third time since 2023, restaurant vouchers returned to the hemicycle, and despite relatively sparse sections, the subject sparked lively debates. The main challenge was to make permanent a measure introduced in 2022, in the midst of inflation: the possibility of using tickets to buy all food products, including pasta or flour for example. This exemption has already been extended twice and is due to expire on December 31. The text plans to renew it for one year, before making it permanent from 2028. On this principle, the deputies were largely in agreement, but its impact on restaurateurs caused more divergence.

Since the expansion of the system, the share of mass distribution in expenses paid with meal vouchers has increased from 22% to 31% between the end of 2022 and mid-2024, according to the figures cited in the chamber. To try to support restaurateurs, several deputies proposed, in vain, to establish two daily spending limits: one for restaurants, the other for food businesses, with an amount more favorable to the former.

Another subject of tension: the commissions charged by the companies which issue meal vouchers. Employers purchase the securities from these companies, which make them available to employees. When an employee pays for their meal or shopping, the issuer then reimburses the merchant, charging fees of up to 4 to 5% of the amount collected. Four historical players concentrate most of this market.

In 2019, the Competition Authority imposed on them, as well as their joint body, nearly 415 million euros in fines for anti-competitive practices. At the end of the discussions, the text sets a new framework but without a quantified ceiling. It also gives the government the possibility of subsequently capping these commissions by decree.

The reform also provides for the complete dematerialization of meal vouchers from 2028, their use on Sundays and public holidays and the generalization of the possibility of donating them to food aid associations. Examined according to the accelerated procedure, the bill, adopted by 87 votes for and none against, must now be transmitted to the Senate.