Following legislation passed in the Hungarian parliament, stores at world heritage sites and petrol stations will not be permitted to open on Sundays anywhere in the country.
In addition to the original indications, shops at petrol stations will only be permitted to remain open on Sundays if they sell fuel, according to the legislation adopted by Hungarian MPs on Tuesday.
The law that bans retailers and grocery chains of over 200 square metres to open on Sundays was adopted in December and came into force on 15 March. The original law provided for exemptions including world heritage sites and petrol stations.
The legislation comes only a week after ESM reported that two Tesco supermarkets, located in Eastern Hungarian towns of Sátoraljaújhely and Szerencs, belonging to the category of world heritage sites, will remain open on Sundays. As a result of the law passed today, however, none of Tesco’s 209 supermarkets will be open on the last day of the week.
One of the major retailers, SPAR Hungary has been operating small shops at OMV petrol stations. In January, SPAR Hungary’s head of communications, Márk Maczelka, told ESM that the retailer entered into further negotiations with OMV regarding an increase in the number of such units. This way, SPAR would have been carry on with Sunday sales at these petrol stations. Following the decision of Hungarian MPs, however, the retailer’s small shops will have to close on Sundays.
Meanwhile, a survey revealed that over two-thirds of Hungarian adults disagree with the ban on Sunday shopping. Carried out in early March by pollster Ipsos, the survey showed that 68 per cent of the adult population disagrees with the law forcing shops to stay closed on Sundays.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by László Juhász.
