Europe Germany The ("shop closing law") on Sundays and public holidays have been in effect since 1956.
Denmark In
Denmark the closing laws restricting retail trade on Sundays were effectively abolished on October 1, 2012. Retail trade is only restricted on public holidays (
New Year's Day,
Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday,
Easter Sunday,
Easter Monday, Day of Prayer,
Ascension Day,
Whit Sunday,
Whit Monday,
Christmas Day and
Boxing Day) and on
Constitution Day,
Christmas Eve and
New Year's Eve (on New Year's Eve from 3 pm only). On these days almost all shops will remain closed. Exempt are bakeries, DIYs, garden centres, gas stations and smaller supermarkets.
England and Wales Before 1994 Prior to 1994, trading laws forbade sale of certain products on a Sunday; the distinction between those that could and could not be sold was increasingly seen as arbitrary, and the laws were inadequately enforced and widely flouted. For example, some supermarkets would treat the relatively modest fines arising as a business cost and open nonetheless.
Since 1994 The
Sunday Trading Act 1994 relaxed restrictions on Sunday trading. This produced vocal opposition from bodies such as the
Keep Sunday Special campaign, and the
Lord's Day Observance Society: on religious grounds, on the grounds that it would increase consumerism, and that it would reduce shop assistants' weekend leisure time. The legislation permits large shops (those with a relevant floor area in excess of 280 square metres; 3000 sq. ft.) to open for up to six hours on Sunday. Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres (3000 sq. ft.), are free to set their own Sunday trading times. Some large shops, such as
off-licences, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions. Some very large shops (e.g. department stores) open for longer than six hours on a Sunday by allowing customers in to browse 30 minutes prior to allowing them to make a purchase, since the six-hour restriction only applies to time during which the shop may make sales. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are non-trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter, but not to small shops (those with an area of below 280 square metres; 3000 sq. ft.).
Netherlands Prior to 1996, shops were generally closed on Sundays. A new law () regarding opening times changed that and leaves that decision mostly up to local municipalities. This law was changed several times since. The
Zondagswet (“”), a law on
Sabbath desecration, is mainly to ensure that church services remain undisturbed on Sundays and Christian holidays. It forbids public festivities on a Sunday before 13:00, as well as making noise that carries farther than , but activities that are unlikely to disturb church services are exempt.
Northern Ireland Prior to 2008,
no football was permitted to be played on Sundays by clubs affiliated to the
Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland. Shops with a floor area of over may only open from 1 to 6pm on Sundays. In
Belfast, public playgrounds were closed on Sundays until 1965.
Swings in public parks were tied up and padlocked to prevent their use. Similar laws formerly applied to cinemas, pubs and parks.
Poland Since 2007, blue laws were enacted and resulted in stores closing on the
13 state holidays in
Poland – these are both religious and secular days of rest. In 2014, an initiative by the
Law and Justice party failed to pass the reading in the
Sejm to ban trading on Sundays and state holidays. However, since 2018, the ruling government and the President of Poland has signed a law that restricts store trading from March 1, 2018, to the first and last Sunday of the month,
Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th
Advent Sundays, as well as trading until 14.00 for
Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve. In 2019, the restriction was extended, and trading was permitted solely on the last Sunday of the month, as well as
Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th
Advent Sundays, as well as trading until 14.00 for
Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve. From 2020, stores may only be open on seven Sundays in the year:
Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th
Advent Sundays, the last Sunday of January, April, June and August as well as trading until 14.00 for
Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve. As a result of restrictions in connection with the
COVID-19 pandemic, the 2nd Advent Sunday was later added as a shopping day.
North America Canada The ''
Lord's Day Act, which since 1906 had prohibited business transactions from taking place on Sundays, was declared unconstitutional in the 1985 case R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. Calgary police officers witnessed several transactions at the Big M Drug Mart, all of which occurred on a Sunday. Big M was charged with a violation of the Lord's Day Act
. A provincial court ruled that the Lord's Day Act
was unconstitutional, but the Crown proceeded to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In a unanimous 6–0 decision, the Lord's Day Act'' was ruled an infringement of the freedom of conscience and religion defined in section 2(a) of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A Toronto referendum in 1950 allowed only team sports to be played professionally on Sunday. Theatre performances, movie screenings, and horse racing were not permitted until the 1960s. The Supreme Court later concluded, in
R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd. [1986] (2 S.C.R. 713), that Ontario's
Retail Business Holiday Act, which required some Sunday closings, did not violate the Charter because it did not have a religious purpose. Nonetheless, as of today, virtually all provincial Sunday closing laws have ceased to exist. Some were struck down by provincial courts, but most were simply abrogated, often due to competitive reasons where out-of-province or foreign merchants were open.
United States In the United States, judges have defended blue laws "in terms of their secular benefit to workers", holding that "the laws were essential to social well-being". Many states prohibit selling
alcohol for on and off-premises sales in one form or another on Sundays at some restricted time, under the idea that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking. Many blue laws in the United States restrict the purchase of particular items on Sundays. Some of these laws restrict the ability to buy cars, groceries, office supplies, and housewares among other things. Though most of these laws have been relaxed or repealed in most states, they are still enforced in some other states. In Texas, for example, blue laws prohibited selling housewares such as pots, pans, and washing machines on Sunday until 1985. In
Colorado,
Illinois,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Louisiana,
Maine,
Minnesota,
Missouri,
Oklahoma,
New Jersey,
North Dakota,
Pennsylvania, and
Wisconsin, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday.
Maryland permits Sunday automobile sales only in the counties of
Charles,
Prince George's,
Montgomery, and
Howard; similarly,
Michigan restricts Sunday sales to only those counties with a population of less than 130,000. Texas and
Utah prohibit car dealerships from operating over consecutive weekend days. In some cases, these laws were created or retained with the support of those whom they affected, to allow them a day off each week without fear of their competitors still being open. Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In
Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and
Maine, for example, blue laws prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Research regarding the effect of the repeal of blue laws has been conducted, with Professor Elesha Coffman of
Baylor University writing:
Court cases Beginning in the mid-19th century, religious and ethno-cultural minorities arrested for violating state and local blue laws appealed their convictions to state supreme courts. In
Specht v. Commonwealth (Pa. 1848), for example, German
Seventh Day Baptists in Pennsylvania employed attorney
Thaddeus Stevens to challenge the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's Sunday law. As in cases in other states, litigants pointed to the provisions of state constitutions protecting religious liberty and maintained that Sunday laws were a blatant violation. Though typically unsuccessful (most state supreme courts upheld the constitutionality of Sunday laws), these constitutional challenges helped set a pattern by which subsequent minorities would seek to protect religious freedom and minority rights. The
Supreme Court of the United States held in its landmark case,
McGowan v. Maryland (1961), that
Maryland's blue laws violated neither the
Free Exercise Clause nor the
Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It approved the state's blue law restricting commercial activities on Sunday, noting that while such laws originated to encourage
attendance at Christian churches, the contemporary Maryland laws were intended to serve "to provide a uniform day of rest for all citizens" on a secular basis and to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest. That this day coincides with
Christian Sabbath is not a bar to the state's secular goals; it neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.
McGowan was but one of four Sunday closing cases decided together by the Court in May 1961. In
Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Mass., Inc., the Court ruled against a Kosher deli that closed on Saturday but was open on Sunday. The other two cases were
Braunfeld v. Brown, and
Two Guys from Harrison-Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley. Chief Justice
Earl Warren declared that "the State seeks to set one day apart from all others as a day of rest, repose, recreation and tranquility--a day which all members of the family and community have the opportunity to spend and enjoy together, a day on which there exists relative quiet and disassociation from the everyday intensity of commercial activities, a day on which people may visit friends and relatives who are not available during working days".
Oceania Cook Islands and Niue Blue laws also exist in the Polynesian islands of
Cook Islands and
Niue. In the Cook Islands, these were the first written legislation, enacted by the
London Missionary Society in 1827, with the consent of the
ariki (chiefs). Laws in Niue ban certain activities on Sunday, reflecting
the country's history of observing the Christian Sabbath tradition.
Tonga In the
Kingdom of Tonga, the
Vavaʻu Code (1839) was a form of blue law inspired by the teachings of
Methodist missionaries. With the inauguration of the
Tongan Constitution on June 4, 1875, the sixth clause stipulates: "The Sabbath Day shall be kept holy in Tonga and no person shall practise his trade or profession or conduct any commercial undertaking on the Sabbath Day except according to law; and any agreement made or witnessed on that day shall be null and void and of no legal effect." == See also ==