In response to an urgent request submitted by a number of private individuals, the urgent applications judge has ruled against suspending the obligation to present a health pass in six shopping malls in the Alpes-Maritimes département. The judge considers that the objective of this obligation is to protect public health and that there are many other shops in the vicinity in which people without a health pass can obtain the same basic goods and services.
Private individuals asked the urgent applications judge of the Nice Administrative Court to suspend the Prefectoral obligation requiring people to have a health pass to enter six shopping malls in the Alpes-Maritimes département. They lodged an appeal with the Conseil d'Etat regarding the order rejecting their request.
The urgent applications judge stated that the applicable provisions, which require guaranteeing access to essential goods and services and, if relevant, to transport means, do not require that such a guarantee be provided within the shopping mall itself, and that Prefects are responsible for ensuring users can access the same essential goods, services and transport means within a reasonable distance.
The review highlighted that the Covid-19 incidence rate in the Alpes-Maritimes département was above 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and that the rate only fell below this threshold on 10 September. In view of the health situation, the measure requiring people to have a health pass to enter six shopping malls seems necessary, appropriate and clearly proportionate to the public health objective pursued.
The urgent applications judge noted that there were many shops that could provide access to essential goods and services for people without a health pass within a reasonable distance from each of the six shopping malls concerned.
The urgent applications judge also noted that, since the health pass was issued on the basis of a vaccination certificate, but also on the basis of a certificate proving an individual has already contracted and recovered from the virus or has a valid PCR test, there was no specific discrimination against unvaccinated persons.
For these reasons, the urgent applications judge of the Conseil d'Etat ruled that there was no serious and clearly unlawful infringement of fundamental freedoms and rejected the applicants' request.
Download French Ordinance No. 456391