German trade associations call for more flexible opening hours

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2025. 05. 08. 09:51

The chambers of industry and commerce and local governments in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany are calling for more flexible rules on opening hours of shops.

In a joint position paper, initiators propose that automated shops are allowed to operate 24/7 and the rules on Sunday opening are simplified. The document addresses issues that are becoming increasingly topical nationwide in the context of digitalisation in retail and the spread of autonomous store models, Lebensmittelpraxis reports.

According to the motion, unmanned shops with a maximum floor area of 400 square metres that offer daily essentials should in the future be let to open for unlimited hours. So-called hybrid shops, which operate with staff during the day and are automated at night, should also be permitted to sell.

The alliance also criticizes the existing rules for open Sundays. Up to now, a Sunday opening has had to be necessitated by an occasion such as a city festival – even if it is repeated every year. The initiators refer to Thuringia, where Sunday openings are automatically approved of if there was a comparable occasion in the three previous years. Furthermore, the associations also call for shops to be allowed to open on one of the first two Sundays in Advent in December.

“It is incomprehensible how petrol stations are allowed to sell many things on Sundays, while shops have to remain closed,” Jürgen Vogel, Managing Director of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the Palatinate argued.