VTC, "dark stores"... cities are calling for more regulation in Brussels

These "new activities", which follow previous waves of innovation from the "lazy economy" (VTC, furnished tourist accommodation, electric scooters and self-service bicycles, etc.), "are based on a predatory approach to market" and "are destructive of small business", believe the four quoted in a joint declaration.

The development of "dark stores" is also "to the detriment of the quality of life" of the inhabitants, they underline, deploring in particular "the nuisance generated by the incessant ballets of delivery men".

The four cities have invited other European cities (Bordeaux, Cologne, Nice, Rome, Munich, Warsaw, France Urbaine, Euro Cities) to join them in demanding that "put on the agenda of the European Parliament" a better framework for -to the development of "digital services that are not based on an effective economic model".

Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy for urban planning of the mayor (PS) of Paris Anne Hidalgo, calls in particular for a "legal framework on a European scale in terms of labor law on these platforms" in order to avoid a "regression of rights social," he said at a press briefing.

"Innovations create jobs, but for how many jobs are destroyed opposite?", Also wonders the elected Parisian.

"It's a subject that affects the living environment and we have no tools, no resources to deal with it," added Rebecca Bernardi, assistant in charge of trade for the town hall of Marseille, to AFP.

"This whole system of + uberization + transforms the city to which we want to go, a calmer, more peaceful city", she lamented. "The only solution today is to play cat and mouse by modifying the local urban plans or with the municipal police [to verbalize the delivery men in violation]. We need more concrete weapons", she continued.

In France, the big cities faced with the establishment of these brands have been waiting since September for the publication of a ministerial decree supposed to put an end to the legal "vagueness" surrounding the "dark stores".

The text must define them as warehouses, and not businesses, "whether or not there is a withdrawal point", then indicated the Minister Delegate for Trade Olivia Grégoire.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of last October, two signs, Frichti and Gorillas, had obtained a first legal success against the town hall of Paris by suspending by summary procedure nine reports of infringement of the town planning code, the administrative court recognizing them a "collective interest".