Stephane du Sakutin/Agence France-Presse
An exhibition space in the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Élysées qualifies the store itself to open on Sundays, the management asserts.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: June 23, 2006
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: June 23, 2006
PARIS, June 22 — Louis Vuitton was certain it had found an ingenious way around the French ban on doing business on Sunday: it promoted its vast new flagship store on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées as a cultural space.
Cultural spaces, it seems, are exempt from the country's tough labor laws, which among other things prohibit most retailers from opening on what, in some circles here, is still called the "day of the Lord."
But the small area on the top floor of its 20,000-square-foot store dedicated to art exhibits and Vuitton's corporate history and the tiny bookstore below were not enough of a cultural statement for the French Christian Labor Union and the National Clothing Federation.
Accusing the luxury goods giant of violating workers' rights to leisure time, the two groups won a lawsuit last month to shut down the Sunday operations, even though none of the store's employees belong to the union.
"They argued that buying one of their handbags was a cultural activity and that their store is a place that amuses," said Thierry Doueb, the lawyer for the two groups. "They argued that they sell books. For me there's nothing cultural about carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag."
Officials for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Vuitton, declined to comment pending the outcome of the company's appeal, which will be heard by an administrative tribunal on Monday.
But Yves Carcelle, Vuitton's chief executive, recently described the ban as "nonsense."
In a country where unemployment is nearly 10 percent, the Vuitton case is part of a much larger guerrilla war over the meaning of Sunday.
The country's century-old law limiting Sunday work has been amended and eroded, interpreted and flouted to such an extent over the years that it makes little sense. Proprietors who provide "urgent" economic needs, including those who operate restaurants, bars, tobacco shops, newspaper kiosks, florists and pharmacies, are exempt from the ban.
Retailers who can prove an "athletic, recreational or cultural" side to their businesses in "touristic" zones in cities throughout the country, including several neighborhoods in Paris, can be exempted, depending on decisions by the local prefect. So can retailers in depressed economic areas who can make the case that they might go bankrupt if they cannot open on Sundays.
Food markets and many food stores can open on Sundays, but only in the morning. Bakeries can stay open all day, so long as they close another day of the week to allow their "artisans" to rest.
Reflecting the changing patterns of French family life, the law was amended in 2005 to allow gardening and home improvement centers, DVD and video rental stores, and Internet service shops to operate on Sundays.
Violators can be subject to stiff fines, but the law is sporadically enforced. The Virgin Megastore on the Champs-Élysées, which sells DVD's, CD's and books, for example, challenged it nearly two decades ago, staying open until midnight and then later opening on Sundays.
"They told us we'd pay fines, but we did it anyway," said Jean-Noël Reinhardt, president of Virgin Stores. "We were absolutely not allowed to be open, but we did it. It started a debate in France, and after many years the law was changed. There's a kind of hypocrisy here — everyone knows the law doesn't correspond to the needs and desires of the consumer."
Now, Virgin is allowed to operate some of its stores legally in Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux, because they have been designated "cultural" enterprises in designated tourist areas. By contrast, it has to keep stores in 15 other cities, including Lille, Avignon, Lyon and Strasbourg, shut tight.
Virgin France is required to have the 100 employees who work Sundays sign statements every week affirming that they are doing so voluntarily. They are also paid double time.
In addition to Virgin, Vuitton's other neighbors on the Champs-Élysées that operate on Sundays include a soccer souvenir shop and Sephora, the perfumer and makeup emporium, which is also owned by LVMH.
The crackdown against Vuitton and other businesses is largely a result of an aggressive campaign against clothing, shoe and handbag sellers by the National Clothing Federation, an organization that represents 55,000 clothing merchants in France. Its main goal is to protect small merchants, for whom opening on Sundays is a bother and a burden, from big competitors.
This month, after the federation filed suit, the court of appeals of Versailles affirmed the prefect's order of a Sunday closing for all the clothing stores in the Usines Center mall in the nearby town of Vélizy-Villacoublay, but allowed others to remain open.
Yet, with few exceptions, the local authorities have turned a blind eye to the Sunday operations, typically cracking down only when lawsuits force them to act.
"The government has been tolerating us and looking the other direction for 20 years," said Jean-Patrick Grumberg, president of the Association of Usines Center Merchants and owner of a television and stereo shop there. "If the prefect had wanted to shut us down, it would have taken 20 minutes to send the police to close us."
A one-page advertisement by the Usines Center last week in the newspaper Le Figaro branded the law incomprehensible "in a country that counts more than 2,500,000 unemployed at the moment and where the prime minister and his government declare creating jobs their priority."
It also called "absurd" the clause in the law that allows stores to stay open on Sundays as long as they are staffed by the owner and his immediate family, not salaried employees.
Certainly it seems that the French people want the option of Sunday shopping. An Ipsos telephone survey published in April indicated that 75 percent of those polled said they approved of stores opening on Sundays.
But for the opponents of working Sundays, nothing less than the French way of life is at stake.
"Maybe I'm the last dinosaur in France, but if we continue like this, we'll end up with no neighborhood merchants," said Charles Melcer, president of the clothing federation. "We'll end up with those huge malls that Americans adore. We have to be vigilant."
But then he argued his case on more mundane grounds. "Why should merchants who respect the law and stay closed be punished?" he asked. "And why should those who flout the law profit?"
But the small area on the top floor of its 20,000-square-foot store dedicated to art exhibits and Vuitton's corporate history and the tiny bookstore below were not enough of a cultural statement for the French Christian Labor Union and the National Clothing Federation.
Accusing the luxury goods giant of violating workers' rights to leisure time, the two groups won a lawsuit last month to shut down the Sunday operations, even though none of the store's employees belong to the union.
"They argued that buying one of their handbags was a cultural activity and that their store is a place that amuses," said Thierry Doueb, the lawyer for the two groups. "They argued that they sell books. For me there's nothing cultural about carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag."
Officials for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Vuitton, declined to comment pending the outcome of the company's appeal, which will be heard by an administrative tribunal on Monday.
But Yves Carcelle, Vuitton's chief executive, recently described the ban as "nonsense."
In a country where unemployment is nearly 10 percent, the Vuitton case is part of a much larger guerrilla war over the meaning of Sunday.
The country's century-old law limiting Sunday work has been amended and eroded, interpreted and flouted to such an extent over the years that it makes little sense. Proprietors who provide "urgent" economic needs, including those who operate restaurants, bars, tobacco shops, newspaper kiosks, florists and pharmacies, are exempt from the ban.
Retailers who can prove an "athletic, recreational or cultural" side to their businesses in "touristic" zones in cities throughout the country, including several neighborhoods in Paris, can be exempted, depending on decisions by the local prefect. So can retailers in depressed economic areas who can make the case that they might go bankrupt if they cannot open on Sundays.
Food markets and many food stores can open on Sundays, but only in the morning. Bakeries can stay open all day, so long as they close another day of the week to allow their "artisans" to rest.
Reflecting the changing patterns of French family life, the law was amended in 2005 to allow gardening and home improvement centers, DVD and video rental stores, and Internet service shops to operate on Sundays.
Violators can be subject to stiff fines, but the law is sporadically enforced. The Virgin Megastore on the Champs-Élysées, which sells DVD's, CD's and books, for example, challenged it nearly two decades ago, staying open until midnight and then later opening on Sundays.
"They told us we'd pay fines, but we did it anyway," said Jean-Noël Reinhardt, president of Virgin Stores. "We were absolutely not allowed to be open, but we did it. It started a debate in France, and after many years the law was changed. There's a kind of hypocrisy here — everyone knows the law doesn't correspond to the needs and desires of the consumer."
Now, Virgin is allowed to operate some of its stores legally in Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux, because they have been designated "cultural" enterprises in designated tourist areas. By contrast, it has to keep stores in 15 other cities, including Lille, Avignon, Lyon and Strasbourg, shut tight.
Virgin France is required to have the 100 employees who work Sundays sign statements every week affirming that they are doing so voluntarily. They are also paid double time.
In addition to Virgin, Vuitton's other neighbors on the Champs-Élysées that operate on Sundays include a soccer souvenir shop and Sephora, the perfumer and makeup emporium, which is also owned by LVMH.
The crackdown against Vuitton and other businesses is largely a result of an aggressive campaign against clothing, shoe and handbag sellers by the National Clothing Federation, an organization that represents 55,000 clothing merchants in France. Its main goal is to protect small merchants, for whom opening on Sundays is a bother and a burden, from big competitors.
This month, after the federation filed suit, the court of appeals of Versailles affirmed the prefect's order of a Sunday closing for all the clothing stores in the Usines Center mall in the nearby town of Vélizy-Villacoublay, but allowed others to remain open.
Yet, with few exceptions, the local authorities have turned a blind eye to the Sunday operations, typically cracking down only when lawsuits force them to act.
"The government has been tolerating us and looking the other direction for 20 years," said Jean-Patrick Grumberg, president of the Association of Usines Center Merchants and owner of a television and stereo shop there. "If the prefect had wanted to shut us down, it would have taken 20 minutes to send the police to close us."
A one-page advertisement by the Usines Center last week in the newspaper Le Figaro branded the law incomprehensible "in a country that counts more than 2,500,000 unemployed at the moment and where the prime minister and his government declare creating jobs their priority."
It also called "absurd" the clause in the law that allows stores to stay open on Sundays as long as they are staffed by the owner and his immediate family, not salaried employees.
Certainly it seems that the French people want the option of Sunday shopping. An Ipsos telephone survey published in April indicated that 75 percent of those polled said they approved of stores opening on Sundays.
But for the opponents of working Sundays, nothing less than the French way of life is at stake.
"Maybe I'm the last dinosaur in France, but if we continue like this, we'll end up with no neighborhood merchants," said Charles Melcer, president of the clothing federation. "We'll end up with those huge malls that Americans adore. We have to be vigilant."
But then he argued his case on more mundane grounds. "Why should merchants who respect the law and stay closed be punished?" he asked. "And why should those who flout the law profit?"