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LIVING IN FRANCE

French supermarket Carrefour bans certain products over ‘unacceptable’ price hikes

Supermarket chain Carrefour has stopped selling Doritos, Pepsi and other Pepsico brands at its stores in France, Belgium, Italy and Spain amidst a dispute over price hikes, an industry source said on Friday.

French supermarket Carrefour bans certain products over 'unacceptable' price hikes
A sign reading in French "We no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases" is pictured at a Carrefour Group store in Le Pre-Saint-Gervais, near Paris, on January 5, 2024 (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

“We no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases,” say tags on shelves in Carrefour’s French stores where the Pepsico products once stood.

The source said the move also affected stores in Belgium, Italy and Spain.

It means consumers will no longer be able to find the iconic products alongside PepsiCo names such as Lay’s potato chips, Lipton tea, Quaker Cereals and 7Up.

French retailers are locked in annual negotiations with big food industry firms on prices and other conditions regarding their sale in supermarkets.

“We’ve been in discussion with Carrefour for many months and we will continue to engage in good faith in order to try to ensure that our products are available,” a PepsiCo spokeswoman said, declining to comment further on the talks.

Retailers say they are under pressure from food industry firms to raise prices.

Pepsi’s main rival, Coca-Cola, said in November is was seeking to raise its prices an average of 7 percent.

PepsiCo reported in October its sales so far in 2023 had risen by 9 percent on slightly lower food sales and steady beverage sales, an indication it has also raised prices.

It said it expects to boost profits by 13 percent in 2023 and return around $7.7 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks.

With European consumers suffering from food price inflation — the cost of France’s reference shopping basket has jumped 20 percent in two years — many households are watching their spending and shifting to lower-priced supermarket brands.

Michel-Edouard Leclerc, the head of rival French supermarket chain E. Leclerc said the talks with the food giants had been difficult but said that dropping brand name products was not a satisfactory answer.

“Consumers don’t want to pay more but if they don’t have their products, they won’t be happy and they will go to a rival,” he told Franceinfo radio.

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LIVING IN FRANCE

How to prove to French authorities that you are alive

If you live in France you'll be used to official requests for all sorts of documents, but one that may come as a surprise is being asked to prove that you're still alive. Here's how to do that.

How to prove to French authorities that you are alive

Official processes in France usually involve collecting together a big dossier of documents, and requests for certain type of certificate are common (the one for ‘a birth certificate issued within the last three months’ regularly baffles foreigners).

A request that is less common – but still vital – is the request for a Certificat de Vie – a certificate of life, which is basically a piece of paper asserting that you remain within the mortal realm.

Here’s how to get it and why you might need one.

Who needs it?

You only need to provide this certificate if it is requested from you.

The people most likely to get a request for a Certificat de Vie are pensioners. Pensioner providers regularly ask for proof that you are still alive, and if you don’t provide it it’s highly likely that they will stop paying out your pension.

The people most commonly asked to provide this are people living in a different country to the one paying out the pension (so for example people who have worked in France but then moved to another country, or pensioners who have moved to France) but they are fairly widespread for all types of pension.

The other people most likely to ask for it is the benefits office, especially if you are receiving a French Assurance invalidité (disability benefit) or Allocation de solidarité (top-up benefits) – as with pensions, failing to send the certificate can result in your payments being stopped.

Some people may instead be asked for an Attestation sur l’honneur de non-décès (sworn declaration of non-death). This is simpler to provide because it’s not a specific form it’s just something that you write out in formal French declaring that you remain alive, and then sign and date.

You can find templates for creating an attestation in the correct format and legal French here.

How to get it

There are two ways to obtain the Certificat de Vie – in person or online.

If you live in France, you go along in person to your local mairie and ask them to complete the form for you – it’s form Cerfa n° 11753*02, but the mairie staff will know that. Be sure to take with you official ID (ie passport or French ID card), and depending on your circumstances mairie staff may ask for extra paperwork such as proof of address.

Once you have the form, you can send it to whoever has requested it, either by registered mail or a scanned copy uploaded to an online portal.

You can find a sample copy here to show you what the form looks like.

If you live outside France, you can request the certificate at the French consulate, while some police stations will also provide it (depending on the country).

But for those living outside France there is also an online option, which now includes the option to verify your continuing life via your biometric details, meaning that you don’t even need to leave the house.

This would be useful to people who have worked in France for part of their career, meaning they get a partial French pension, but have then either returned to their home country or moved to another country.

In order to use this, you need to download the app ‘Mon Certificat de Vie’ – find full instructions on using it here.

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