The Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg has overturned the 2G rule in retail in Lower Saxony, which only came into force at the beginning of this week. Those who were not vaccinated against Corona or recovered from the virus are only allowed to shop in shops for daily needs, such as the grocery store. According to the 13th Senate of the court, the measure is not necessary to further contain the coronavirus and should therefore be temporarily suspended. (Ref .: 13 MN 477/21). The complaint was filed by a company that operates several branches in Lower Saxony and sells a mixed range there.
The court justified its decision by stating that closed spaces in the sports and leisure sector cannot easily be compared with retail. Research findings that suggested a high risk of infection in sport and leisure could not be transferred to the retail sector. There is currently too little information about how high the risk is in shops and it is also not clear that the country has tried to change that.
In addition, retail customers could easily be required to wear an FFP2 mask. This is suitable to reduce the contribution of contacts in retail to the entire infection process in the country to an “irrelevant level”.
On the other hand, there would be considerable interference with the basic rights of unvaccinated customers and business owners with a 2G regulation. This rule is therefore inadequate when weighed up. Even the Omikron variant does not change this assessment as it stands. The 2-G regulation in retail is not an essential component in the strategy of fighting pandemics “.
In addition, the 2-G rule currently valid in Lower Saxony is not compatible with the principle of equality. There are no “comprehensible factual reasons” why, for example, garden centers and flower shops are excluded from the 2-G rule, while hardware stores fall under it.
The trade association had already sharply criticized the 2-G rule in Lower Saxony when its introduction was still being discussed and stated that it was to be expected that the Christmas business in the inner cities would largely come to a standstill.