Poland closes loophole allowing shops to evade Sunday trade ban
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In one week, Poland will close a loophole that has allowed many large retail chains to evade a ban on Sunday trading by offering postal services, reported local portal Notesfrompoland.
Supermarket giants including Carrefour, Kaufland and Netto, which have been exploiting the exemption, have announced that they will now no longer keep their stores open on Sundays.
The trading ban, which obliges shops to close on all but seven Sundays a year, was introduced in 2018. There are, however, a number of exemptions, including for businesses that offer postal services. That prompted many big chains to start offering such services to remain open.
That practice angered the Solidarity trade union, which had initially proposed the trading ban with the support of the Catholic church. It pressured the government to close the loophole.
Finally in October last year, President Andrzej Duda signed legislation that will now require postal services to account for more than 40% of the revenue of a given premises for it to qualify to remain open on Sundays. The new rules will come into force on February 1.
Moreover, the Finance Ministry has announced a requirement for businesses seeking to continue using the exemption to keep monthly records of sales for each commercial outlet separately, even when they own several in a chain.
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