The Saarland Higher Administrative Court (OVG) has temporarily suspended the access restriction to retail stores under the 2G regulation. The OVG in Saarlouis announced on Friday that this would grant an urgent application from several Saarland specialist markets for electronic items. The decision means that in Saarland the 2G regulation will generally no longer apply in retail until further notice.
After Bavaria and Lower Saxony: No 2G in Saarland retail
The federal and state governments had agreed nationwide on the 2G rules for retail at the beginning of December. For Lower Saxony, the Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg overturned the rules in mid-December. The Bavarian Administrative Court suspended the 2G rule for retail in Bavaria this week.
In the opinion of the Higher Administrative Court of the Saarland “the regulation violates the principle of the rule of law derived from the requirement of certainty of norms”. The only exceptions to the rule are shops whose range of goods or services serves to cover daily needs. However, exceptions also apply to other shops.
However, it is unclear according to which criteria the retail businesses would be covered by the exemption. Because neither the catalog of exceptions nor the official justification result in uniform, objectifiable criteria for the extended scope of the regulation. The decision is final. (dpa)