RETAIL SHOPS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY SAYS NO TO OBLIGATION TO CLOSE ON SUNDAYS AND PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
RETAIL: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY DEEMS BAN ON OPENING OF SHOPS ON SUNDAYS AND PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ANTICOMPETITIVE
Regulations in tourist cities to be monitored. Notification sent after shopkeepers in the capital fined for opening on Easter Monday. Municipality of Rome invited to review its ordinance of 2005.
A ban on the opening of shops on Sundays and public holidays represents an unjustified restriction on competition among retailers. This is the thrust of a notification sent by the Italian Competition Authority to the Municipality of Rome. Following the fines imposed in the capital on retailers who opened their shops on Easter Monday, the Authority also decided to begin monitoring the regulation of retail opening hours in tourism-oriented municipalities.
In its notification, the Antitrust Authority reiterates the general principle whereby opening restrictions constitute an obstacle to the adoption of differentiated strategies on the part of shopkeepers and consequently a broader range of offerings for consumers.
The law, as early as 1998, liberalized retail opening hours in Municipalities whose economies were mainly based on tourism and in the great cities of art, expressly providing that in those Municipalities retailers could deviate from the rule as to closing on Sundays and public holidays. This was a measure in favour of competition aimed at encouraging greater availability of retail services in cites with large numbers of tourists.
The Municipality of Rome's 2005 ordinance, instead, which is still in force, limits such exceptions to 1 November and 8 December, while only shops situated in central city zones of tourist and artistic interest that are specified in the ordinance, may open on Sundays throughout the year.
The Authority, in the light of the national norms and oft-enunciated antitrust principles, requests that the Municipality of Rome review the content of the Ordinance in those clauses which prevent retail outlets from freely exercising their right to choose how to run their businesses.
Rome, 5 April 2008