Small bars exempted from ban on smoking

Published on Wednesday 30 July 2008 22:19

GERMANY'S highest court ruled yesterday that small bars and restaurants should be exempted from regional smoking bans.

It said the bans were unconstitutional because they "seriously interfered" with the livelihoods of these businesses.

Smoking bans came into effect individually in most of Germany's 16 federal states at the start of the year.

The fact that the laws allow bars and restaurants to create closed-off smoking areas in effect put small establishments that lacked the space for these at an unfair disadvantage, the court said.

The ruling upheld a complaint by the owners of two small bars in Berlin and a nightclub operator in the state of Baden-Wrttemberg, who argued that the legislation had put their businesses at risk.

The Constitutional Court said the rules must be redrawn by the end of 2009 and that, until then, smoking must be allowed in bars and restaurants of less than 80sq ft. As most of Germany's regional states have similar smoking laws the ruling is likely to set a precedent.