Trade Association: “The Chancellor is in favor of the non-Covid strategy”

DThe latest crown resolutions from the federal and state governments are “a disaster” for the retail sector, the German Retail Association (HDE) complained immediately after their announcement Thursday night. A little later, HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth now makes a proposal to ease the merchant disaster.

“It would be a pragmatic and quick solution to double the disbursement of the bridge allocations. They only replace a fraction of the costs anyway, ”Genth said in an interview with WELT.

The regulation should refer to the period from March 1 to the end of the current lockdown. According to a rough estimate by the HDE, the costs would be around 1 billion euros if the closings expire at the end of March.

“We are not asking for wealth, just an opportunity for companies to overcome this crisis,” Genth emphasized. In the month of March alone, physical retail would lose another ten billion euros in sales, while costs for companies would continue to rise.

According to the latest decisions, stores in regions with an incidence of less than 50 should be able to reopen from next Monday. With incidence values ​​between 50 and 100, customers can only come in after booking an appointment.

A stable incidence below 50 is not in sight across the board, the trade association complained. And concepts planned with appointments or pickup of pre-ordered items could not save the distributors, because the costs of these solutions are often higher than the sales.

“Frame big enough” to double the bridge aids

Furthermore, a kind of epidemiological emergency brake should reverse the openings as soon as the incidence values ​​exceed 100.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has enough money to double the bridge aid, Genth argues: “The Bundestag has provided a sufficiently large financial framework.”

This was not sold out last year because access conditions were too tight. The head of HDE criticized the bridge aid. It was only intended to cushion the consequences of the pandemic, but never to cover a strict lockdown.

“Politicians close companies and do not provide adequate compensation. These are violations of fundamental rights “, raised the head of the HDE constitutional issues. The dealer organization is apparently determined to put more pressure on the federal and state governments in this area.

The trade association commissioned an expert opinion from the Noerr law firm on the company’s compensation claims, Genth WELT said. Completion is expected in the next few days. “We will make it available to commercial companies that want the constitutionality of the political procedure to be verified,” announced the head of the association.

Among other things, the experience will shed light on the issue that, unlike in the catering sector, retailers did not receive any help in December after the stores closed on December 16. Restaurateurs can request compensation for up to 75 percent of sales. The experts also addressed the question of whether the bridge aid was appropriate in relation to the incisions.

Media Saturn and Obi had also announced lawsuits.

Some companies have already indicated that they want to take legal action up to the Constitutional Court in case of doubt, including S. Oliver.

A possible lawsuit against the closures “will be fundamentally justified,” company chief Claus-Dietrich Lahrs said recently. Fashion department stores Breuninger, electronics chain Media Saturn, and hardware store Obi had also filed or announced complaints.

Several hundred small and medium business enterprises are also preparing a class action lawsuit. Constitutional lawyers see that the longer the closures, the greater the chances of lawsuits being filed that are justified with reference to fundamental rights such as freedom of occupation and property.

Courts would have to weigh the extent to which contagion risk justifies state intervention relative to other interests, Ferdinand Kirchhof, former vice president of the Federal Constitutional Court, said recently. Other experts, such as Berlin constitutional lawyer Christoph Möllers, have expressed doubts that the courts will fully question the closure.

For Genth, the answer is clear: “If the state decides on mandatory closures and restricts fundamental rights, then it has to adequately compensate,” he said. But the Infection Protection Act does not contain any compensation regulation and bridging aid is “a long way from what is taken from the company.” This brings up the issue of state liability law.

The director of the association was convinced that more opening steps could be carried out safely: “When the shops in Schleswig-Holstein open on Monday, we will see that the hygiene concepts work there.”

Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) had announced in the state parliament that the stores of the northern federal state will be able to receive customers again from March 8 and that more relaxations would be possible in areas such as sports and culture: “We are a country with an incidence of less than 50. The regulations allow an opening step to be responsible “.

Many of Germany’s European neighbors have even relaxed their lockdown, in some cases with significantly higher incidences, or plan to do so over the next week. For values ​​of 200 or more, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Poland, among others, open, mostly subject to conditions and partly on probation.

“The continuation of the blockade on retail is a symbolic policy,” Genth accused German politicians: “You want to avoid images that indicate that everything has returned to normal. But that has nothing to do with the facts. ”

Distributors have invested a lot of money in hygiene concepts to further reduce risks.

Even the Robert Koch Institute now rates the risk of infection in this branch of the economy as low. This is also demonstrated by the fact that there have been 40 million customer contacts in supermarkets, pharmacies and other stores open for months without any significant risk of infection.

In contrast, only ten million customer contacts are expected in closed stores. “You’re kidding yourself if you close this part,” is Genth’s conclusion. In addition, distributors have invested a lot of money in hygiene concepts to further reduce risks.

Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the head of the association of having a narrower vision: “The chancellor is in favor of the non-Covid strategy, that is clear to everyone. There is no real dialogue with the companies, neither with us nor with others. ”

The state actually has to comply now, both in terms of vaccination and testing. “We have to try what we can, so we don’t need a lock,” he said. The state must bear the costs of this. He could not “just force it on the company” as it was in the general interest.

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