GERMANY’S PATCHWORK SMOKING BAN SYSTEM SHAKEN UP BY COURT
August 1st, 2008
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY'S federal constitutional court has declared illegal regional state laws implementing a partial smoking ban that allowed large bars to set aside special areas for smokers. This flexibility has been allowed in rules introduced by most of Germany's 16 Länder, but this was challenged legally by two small bars who said they and similar businesses had no room for such areas and so were being placed at a competitive disadvantage. The court backed their complaints against the laws of Baden-Württemberg and Berlin and ruled that across the ...
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