Business : the Sunday war revived in Cannes

The little war that happened early 1999 about the opening of supermarkets on Sunday morning has been revived in Cannes La Bocca. It stopped with the prefect order of March 22nd 1999 which, after having consulted several supermarket union organisations, forbade to open on Sunday. But, the debate has been revived by the order made late January by the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence. This jurisdiction contested the validity of the prefect order because all involved union organisations did not give their agreement to the closure demand. As a consequence, the position of supermarkets has been strengthened.

Hence the decision of the direction of the La Bocca Leclerc supermarket (owner of the Promodès group) to open on Sunday February 13th, without waiting for the decision the administrative Court of Nice which has to validated or not the order. This judgement should happen soon. Still, last Sunday, the CGT local union had decided to block the store access to motorists, while the AICAI (inter-professional association of shopkeepers, craftsmen and industrialists in La Bocca) is mobilizing in case of…