No change to shop opening hours

The Ministry of Trade recently proposed an amendment to the Trading Act which would allow grocery stores to extend their opening hours. But this plan has now been shelved, as parts of the retail industry do not support it, says trade minister Poul Michelsen.

The current law states that shops larger than 250 square metres are not allowed to trade in the evenings and on Sundays.

In addition to removing the space requirement, the amendment sought to allow grocery stores to trade on Sundays from 2pm to 11pm in December.

Although the current law only allows shops to trade the last Sunday before Christmas, this requirement has been eased in recent years. The new amendment aimed to make it legally permissible for grocery stores to trade every Sunday in December.

However, the Retailers’ Union argued that if the aim was to liberalise the law, this should apply to the law in its entirety, and not just to a selected few traders. And if this was not possible, the union wanted the changes to be scrapped.

Having taken these objections into account, the trade minister has now decided to put the planned changes on hold.

It is, however, possible that the Trading Law will be changed in the future, but more work needs to be done before that can happen, says Michelsen.

Translated by prosa.fo