On August 1st, a new shopping law comes into force in Bavaria, which was decided by the state parliament in early July. Now the Verdi union and the churches have announced their resistance.
More sales -open evenings possible
The biggest innovation is that consumers: In the future, also in digital small supermarkets that do without personnel can shop around the clock on Sundays. However, the sales area must not be larger than 150 square meters.
For all other shops – with the exception of tourism regions – the number of Sundays open to sales remains limited to a maximum of four a year. In addition, special occasions such as city festivals or trade fairs are required. If it deals with the end of sales, the possibilities for all shops have been expanded here: While such sales -open evenings have so far only been organized as part of municipal occasions such as festivals or trade fairs, municipalities may in future extend opening hours until midnight without such occasions.
Even individual businesses – not only municipalities – are also allowed to open until midnight on four days a year. This should enable, for example, that events can be carried out in shops without having to close the cash registers. A message to the community should be sufficient here.
There are more flexible regulations in the tourism areas. So far, business has already been able to open up to 40 Sundays and public holidays. There should be relaxation in the range, and municipalities should be able to determine in the future where a tourism sale is approved.
Long -standing struggle for the closing law law
Bavaria is the last federal state in Germany, in which the federal retail law still applies in 1956. Since 2004, the federal states have been able to regulate their closing time in their own laws. Especially with a view to the time -restricted online trade, retailers have always required flexibility inside, which many federal states followed.
In Bavaria, too, there were always attempts to loosen the regulations – but always with violent resistance on the part of the unions and the churches. And that’s how it is this time. The “Alliance for Free Sonntag”, a representative of the church service in the world of work of Evang.-Luth. Church in Bavaria, a complaint announced by the Bavarian Constitutional Court. This is directed primarily against the Sunday opening of the digital supermarkets and refers to Article 147 of the Bavarian Constitution. It says “the Sundays and the state -recognized holidays remain legally protected as days of mental survey and the rest of the work”.
“Unions and churches in the hearing process have emphasized that this article is questioned and violated in a variety of ways.