Traders : financial assistance for unsold merchandises

The government had already announced several weeks ago: to cushion the losses caused by the impossibility of selling their seasonal merchandises due to the closure measure to which they were subjected during the lockdown, some retail businesses will receive aid from the government.

The conditions for granting this aid have just been specified by decree.

Thus, this aid may be granted to businesses (individual entrepreneurs, companies, or associations) which are resident for tax purposes in France and which:

- carry out their main activity in the retail trade of clothing, shoes, leather goods and travel goods as well as sporting goods in specialised stores, or in the retail sale of textiles, clothing, and shoes on stalls and markets.

- received aid from the solidarity fund for the month of November 2020.

- were the subject of a measure prohibiting the reception of the public.

- were not subject to an administrative closure due to non-compliance with health obligations.

This aid shall be paid to them in one instalment, starting on May 25, 2021. It corresponds to 80% of the amount they received from the solidarity fund for the month of November 2020.

Precision: The aide is paid only if its amount is at least equal to €100.

In practice, this aid is automatically paid by the services of the Directorate-General for Public Finance (DGFiP - Direction générale des Finances publiques). Therefore, the companies concerned do not have to fill in any form to benefit from it.

Attention: The aid is paid only to companies in the areas subjected to the stay-at-home order in November 2020, i.e., mainland France and Martinique.

Reminder: Businesses belonging to the above-mentioned sectors of activities with an average monthly turnover of more than one million euros are not eligible for this new aid. Their losses will be covered under another scheme, which is a complementary scheme to the solidarity fund, commonly known as “fixed costs”.