The restaurant ticket is essential in the daily life of the French. However, it also has its limits and we often do not know what it really costs us.
The restaurant ticket appeared in the 1960s. Today very widespread, everyone does not necessarily benefit from it, it all depends on the employer. When he supports 50-60% of its price, it is the employee who covers the rest, with some tax advantages.
Each year, around ten players spend 7.5 billion euros restaurant vouchers. These are mainly Edenred, Natixis or even Sodexo. 4.8 million employees benefit from it in France. Only 20% of companies offer restaurant vouchers to their employees. The market has yet to be conquered!
Only a third of businesses are eligible for restaurant voucher issuers. Each year, many French people end up with unused restaurant vouchers. In fact, 10% of these tickets are not used, i.e. 700,000 euros.
Commissions too high for merchants
There was a time when the restaurant vouchers unused were reimbursed by the issuers in favor of charities. Today, with dematerialization, “we went with the card to 10% of the unspent sums”explains Catherine Coupet, former director of the Groupe Up cooperative which created the start-up Open! Eat.
The latter deplores the fact that transmitters make a lot of money on the backs of the French. She thus takes the example of an employee who would receive 200 euros per month in meal vouchers, but would only use 70% of them, would see his benefits postponed and “what appears to be an advantage becomes a cog”. According to a study by Selvitys, each year, there would remain 100 to 300 euros for more than 35% of employees at the end of November. For almost 7%, it remains from 300 to 600 euros. In addition, many merchants refuse restaurant tickets for their too high commissions.