BROCANTE(S). Can the organiser (legally) maintain a monopoly on provision of food & drink? (I have read Art. L310-2 and the loi du 1e juillet 1901). OK, who are the parties in a Brocante? The organiser; stall-holders (particuliers and professionnels); the Maire (to give permission); the local shops & restaurants; (the Police Municipal); the food and drink providers in the street at the Brocante (crêpes, caramelised peanuts, Barbe de Papa, the coffee urn, wine by the glass, etc, etc) as distinct from local bars.
MY PROBLEM: I have been refused a stall to sell my takeaway pizzas at the 3-day, town centre, Fête du Travail Brocante on 1st to 3rd May in Montrichard 41400.
Outside of being a ‘particulier’ who might want to sell my 2nd hand stuff at the Brocante, I have recently turned Artisan and have just bought a new Pizza Trailer (‘Food Truck’ as the French now call them, although mine is not a van but a trailer). So my request for a stall at the Brocante is a Professionnel, not a Particulier.
This Brocante is organised by a town Association called ‘Modern Dance’ (despite name, totally French) which raises money for (as the name suggests). This bloke has organised 2, centre of town Brocante for all the 7 years that I have lived here (one in May, one in Aug, in Montrichard 41400). And he does a great job, works very hard, is known all through the town, is hand in glove with the Mairie, etc, etc, I am sure that we all live in parochial, back-slapping, palm-greasing towns like mine.
I’ll put it another way: HOW is the organiser (and his wife and daughter) allowed to sell Crêpes at the Brocante, when, by French law, I am on the appropriate register at the Prefecture as a food-seller and I have done my food hygiene training and am on the register at the Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat, when the organiser has not / is not? How is the unregulated, unregistered, untrained head of the Association and organiser allowed to (for example) sell Crêpes TO THE PUBLIC for money? And the power to say to me that I can’t sell my food?
Brocantes are governed by Art. L310-2 of the Code de Commerce
and Associations are governed by the le Loi du 1e juillet 1901.
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006069570
Neither of these touch on or address my problem or inquiry. However, they raise another question, if at a Brocante one is “only allowed to sell exclusively used, personal objects” (2nd hand crap), why is the organiser allowed to sell food & drink, when the one and only prevailing law on Brocantes states sale of used personal stuff?
« Les particuliers non inscrits au registre du commerce et des sociétés sont autorisés à participer aux ventes au déballage en vue de vendre exclusivement des objets personnels et usagés deux fois par an au plus. »
(my inquiry has got nothing to do with the widely abused ‘only 2 brocantes per annum’ rule, which I don’t care about as I am a professional registered at the Chambre de Commerce).
As we have communicated so far by telephone answering machine message (me requesting a space, him leaving me a message to say ‘no can do’), I wonder if he has not understood that I a registered Artisan food-seller i.e. a professional? I don’t think it is that at all; I think it is the usual naked French protectionism; ‘I can, my mates can, you can’t. And while I have all the power that I have, you can F*** off, new person’.
So addressing my actual questions, how does the organiser of the Brocante have the legal power to maintain a monopoly, so he, his family and his Association are the only ones that can sell food and drink in the street? (les commerces will do as they wish to too), contrary to the apparent provision of the only (?) law on Brocantes, « des ventes au déballage »?