Karlsruhe, Germany - Germany's highest court affirmed Tuesday a general ban on Sunday trading in shops, and rebuked the city-state of Berlin for allowing seven-day opening throughout December. In most of Germany, shops and offices remain shut all day on Sunday, which is the traditional Christian day of rest.
The Lutheran and Catholic churches in Berlin had appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to declare the city's shop hours law illegal. A provision of German constitutions since 1919 declares Sunday to be a "legally protected day of rest from work."
The court agreed the law was unconstitutional, but decided that the Berlin shops should should stick to their Sunday opening plans this year while the legislation is trimmed to only allow opening on four Sunday afternoons per year on scattered dates.
Judges said some exceptions with good reason were allowed, but a blanket exemption for all four Sundays preceding the December 25 Christmas holiday could not be justified if the only reason was consumers' desire to shop and vendors' desire to boost sales.
Most of Germany's 16 states have allowed occasional Sunday opening, but Berlin's rules were the most liberal. Some business groups contend that six-day opening is a form of restraint of trade, whereas labour unions support the ban.
Stefan Genth, chief of the German Retailers Federation, said in a TV interview that a metropolitan region like Berlin needed Sunday trading. A trade union representing shop staff, Verdi, welcomed the ruling, saying staff needed to spend Sundays with their families.
