German state doubles down on shopping limits despite ruling
March 22, 2021
Germany's western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has extended coronavirus restrictions on shops after a court ruled the existing measures on retail businesses were unfair.
The court's decision on Monday meant that mandatory visitor appointments and limitations of customers per square meter in stores would be dropped with immediate effect.
In response, the state has stretched the customer booking requirement and limitations to include shops that were initially exempt.
NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann said his government was "consistently implementing" the court's decision.
According to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster, the restrictions "in their current form" violated the constitutional principle of equal treatment.
What will it mean for shoppers?
Based on NRW's current Corona Protection Ordinance, all retailers have been able to reopen since March 8.
For stores previously exempt from closure, such as supermarkets, the state's protection ordinance allowed one customer per 10 or 20 square meters (215 square feet).
In the rest of the NRW's retail sector, however, access was limited to one customer per 40 square meters and only by prior appointment.
German retail giants file lawsuits
The decision comes after MediaMarktSaturn, Germany's largest electronics retailer, filed an emergency application with the Münster court, calling for NRW shop closures to be lifted.
"The shop closures in Germany, which have been in place for more than two months now, are disproportionate," the company’s Germany CEO Florian Gietl criticized.
The growing list of retail chains in Germany which have already started filing law suits over lockdown measures includes homeware and building supplies store Obi and international clothing retailer Peek & Cloppenburg. They have argued that mass layoffs are inevitable if coronavirus restrictions on German stores continue.
fb, mvb/dj (dpa, Reuters, AFP)