Wrongly blacklisted, LVMH salesman will be able to deliver to customers during the 2024 Paralympic Games

Champagne! The interim relief judge of administrative court Paris has once again ruled in favor of a sales representative of the brand Moët Hennessy Diageoby ordering the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organising Committee (COJO) to issue it with accreditation to supply its customers for the duration of the Paralympic Games.

An unfavorable administrative investigation

This sales representative for seven years for the joint subsidiary of the LVMH and Diageo groups had in fact been refused “accreditation” to access several sites of the 2024 Olympic Games after an “unfavorable opinion” from the National Service of Administrative Security Investigations (Sneas) of the Ministry of the Interior.

He had therefore urgently seized the interim relief judge of the Paris administrative court to obtain the suspension of this decision which, according to him, infringed on his “freedom to come and go” and his “freedom to exercise an economic activity”: his profession necessarily implies that he “physically travels” to his customers to supply them with champagnes and spirits.

For several weeks, this resident of the 16th arrondissement of Paris would suffer the consequences of this administrative decision in “his work, his reputation, his remuneration”; this would have an impact on “his private and family life”, he feared. This decision was therefore “neither proportionate nor circumstantial”.

A “clean record”, a “normal family life”

The applicant has a “clean record” and has worked “for seven years in the LVMH group” which is a “premium partner” of the 2024 Olympic Games. “He leads a normal family life with his wife and son, and has never had any trouble with the law,” his two lawyers stressed. “The authorities […] “have not given any information about this refusal, nor have the organizers,” they insisted to the interim relief judge.

Their client had already almost been unable to work during the Olympics. But a “favorable opinion” was finally issued on July 2, 2024 by the Ministry of the Interior… three days after the salesman had first brought the matter before the administrative court. The latter concluded that there was “no need to rule” on his request, but nevertheless ordered the State to pay him 500 euros in legal costs.

An “incomprehensible” refusal

In this context, the refusal to grant access to the Paralympic Games sites this time was “incomprehensible”, because it “contradicts the favourable opinion” given by the Sneas, argued the applicant’s lawyers. This second opinion, “undated”, had prompted them to refer the matter a second time to the Paris administrative court, on 1 August 2024.

“It results from the investigation” that “the Sneas did not carry out a new investigation” which would have “called into question the favorable opinion on its accreditation issued on July 2, 2024”, the judge begins by noting in a second order of August 3, 2024, which has just been made public.

And “the Cojo must have had knowledge [du premier avis favorable]since he […] finally issued an accreditation [au requérant] for the duration of the Olympic Games,” adds the magistrate. “In these conditions, the argument based on the fact that the Cojo allegedly failed to recognize […] the Internal Security Code is such as to create serious doubt as to the legality of the information received by MX at the beginning of July 2024”.

The person concerned will therefore also be able to work during the Paralympic Games.

/CB (PressPepper)

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