Par
Editorial Paris
Published on
Jan 5, 2025 at 6:32 p.m.
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The cour administrative d’appel of Paris dismissed the former private operator of the public parking lots Lobau (4th) and Madeleine-Tronchet (8th), who requested nearly 11.5 million euros in compensation from the City of Paris due to its “policy in matters of circulation automobile ».
Indigo Infra France (formerly Vinci Park) had already been disavowed at first instance by the Paris administrative court in March 2022, but continued on appeal to attribute the “drop in attendance” of its two Parisian car parks to successive decisions of mayors ( PS) from Paris Bertrand Delanoë, then Anne Hidalgo.
The City’s “quasi-tort liability”
The City of Paris […] adopted unpredictable measures regarding automobile traffic which directly affected park attendance. It damaged an essential element of the contracts, the financial balance of which was disrupted.
The “quasi-tort liability” of the City could even be engaged, “for failure to have communicated its political intentions” when the two contracts had been signed.
Vinci Park had in fact signed eight-year contracts in 2011 with Bertrand Delanoë, Anne Hidalgo's predecessor, to operate these two parking lots. However, the redevelopment of roads on banks from 2012 and the closure of north-south transit in the Halles tunnel from 2015 were added to the “2015 program” of « zone 30 » and at “Bike plan 2015-2030” of the left-wing majority. The drop in traffic was thus “3.4% per year on average” between 2011 and 2019, calculated Vinci.
” However […]the City of Paris had initiated a policy of reducing car traffic well before the signing of the contracts […]whose medium and long-term effects society could not ignore,” objects the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal in a judgment dated November 6, 2024, which has just been made public.
A policy initiated well before
“As of October 1, 2007, the Council of Paris had in fact adopted a Climate Plan […] whose objective was the reduction of carbon dioxide […] at a rate of 25% by 2013 and 60% in 2020, giving priority to alternative means of transport”, recall the Parisian judges. “On April 14, 2010, […] the mayor [de l’époque Bertrand Delanoë] had also announced in the press the City's project to reconquer the banks of the Seine by reducing car traffic. »
“This policy of reducing car traffic […] could not be ignored by the applicant company in its capacity as a professional in the urban parking sector, awarded several concessions for the operation of parking lots well before 2011,” underlines the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal. ” Above all […] the consultation files given to candidates during the award of contracts […] mentioned the objectives of the City of Paris consisting of encouraging a reduction in car traffic. »
An “obligation” was even made to the winners to “join the process” to “strengthen alternative modes of transport or carpooling”, recalls the court.
The drop in attendance at the two car parks can therefore very well be explained by “the existence ofmore attractive competing offers“, by “improving modes of public transport” or even by “the increase in hourly rates» applied by Indigo itself, suggests the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal…
The company was therefore dismissed and will have to pay 1,500 euros to the city of Paris for its legal costs. She has until January 6, 2025 to refer the matter to the Council of State, the highest French administrative court.
/GF (PressPepper)
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