The catering company of which I am the manager holds a commercial lease. The contract includes a rent indexation clause with the reference index being the 3rd quarter of the ILC (commercial rent index). Is it true that this year, the indexation (...)

...of the rent is exceptionally capped due to the economic context?

Yes, but under certain conditions. Indeed, to cope with inflation and help SMEs, the law of 16 August 2022 on purchasing power includes various emergency measures, in particular the capping of the annual variation of the commercial rent index (ILC) to 3.5%.

This cap concerns exclusively the annual revision of the rent due to the variation of the ILC (it does not apply if your rent is revised according to the construction cost index (ICC) or the index for the activities tertiary (ILAT).

Then this measure is only applicable to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), i.e., to enterprises with less than 250 employees and whose annual turnover does not exceed 50 million euros or whose total annual balance sheet does not exceed 43 million euros.

Last but not least, this measure is temporary and only concerns variations over the following four quarters: 2nd quarter 2022, 3rd quarter 2022, 4th quarter 2022 and 1st quarter 2023.