Most Shops Closed on Sundays as of 2006
Most shops will have to close on Sundays as of 2006 under a ruling of the Constitutional Court published on Friday. The court decided that Article 17 of the trade act, which restricts opening hours, is not in violation of the constitution.
The court has thus upheld the result of the September 2003 referendum on the opening hours of shops and the subsequent legislative changes that will allow unlimited opening hours only for petrol stations and shops at hospitals, hotels, airports, border crossings and train/bus stations. All other outlets will only be allowed to open ten Sundays a year.
While the appeal of retailers Mercator, Era and Kompas MTS, as well oil company Petrol, was rejected, the court did mitigate the impact of the referendum by throwing out a provision of the trade act that restricted the size of shops that would be allowed to operate without restrictions to 80 sq. metres.
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