In a trial in which the Kobe City Co-op sued the government for damages that were not recognized just before the start of participation in the point return system for cashless payments that was carried out in conjunction with the increase in the consumption tax rate. The Kobe District Court ruled that the government's response was illegal and ordered compensation of more than 11 million yen.

Regarding the system in which points are returned to payments by cashless payment, which was introduced in conjunction with the increase in the consumption tax rate in October, the government announced in advance the co-op Kobe, which has its headquarters in Kobe City. I applied for participation based on the guidelines of the target business operator.



However, four days before the system started, the government notified that it was intended to support small and medium-sized enterprises and that participation was not permitted.



For this reason, he filed a lawsuit against the government and demanded compensation of more than 27 million yen, saying that preparation costs such as reprinting of electronic money cards and repair of the cash register system were wasted.



In a ruling on the 31st, Keiko Kuboi, the judge of the Kobe District Court, said, "At the time of the announcement of the guidelines, the government had a policy of allowing the participation of agricultural cooperatives and co-ops that met the requirements, but later on. We are changing our policy and unfairly destroying our trust. "



He decided that the government's response was illegal and ordered compensation of more than 11 million yen.

Co-op Kobe "Relieved"

Regarding the judgment, "Corp Kobe" commented, "I think that the responsibility of the country was recognized head-on. I am relieved that the co-op's allegations have been generally accepted. doing.



On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry commented, "We would like to scrutinize the content of the judgment and consider the response policy."

What is Co-op Kobe's complaint?

On October 1st, the consumption tax rate was raised from 8% to 10%, and in line with this, as an economic measure, the government will return up to 5% of points when making cashless payments at small and medium-sized stores. We have started the system to be used.



The system is to support small and medium-sized enterprises, and in the case of retail businesses, it was targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises and private shops with capital of 50 million yen or less or 50 employees or less.



Since there was no initial provision for cooperatives, the government announced the guidelines of the target businesses and decided that if the scale of taxable income meets the requirements, it would be eligible for subsidies.



As of March, Co-op Kobe has 141 stores in Hyogo prefecture and has sales of about 244 billion yen, which is the largest retail business in the prefecture.



At the trial, Co-op Kobe claimed that it met the requirements of the published procedure and that it had made preparations after confirming it at briefing sessions about the project.



However, on September 27, four days before the start of the system, the government said, "Although it meets the formal requirements, it is considered to be a business scale substantially similar to that of a large company, and in light of the purpose of the system. We have received a message saying, "We will not approve the registration based on a comprehensive judgment."



For this reason, he argued that the judgments of these countries were arbitrary and ad hoc, and that they would unfairly break the relationships of trust formed through the subsidy business.