The trade union Verdi has filed a complaint against the Sunday trading at the Administrative Court in Cologne. "The city council is confident that it will succeed," was reported from the town hall. But Britta Munkler is also confident that the court will decide in favour of the Verdi lawsuit. The Vice Managing Director of the Verdi district Cologne/Bonn/Leverkusen accuses Bonn city council of not having sufficiently justified the approval of the Sunday store opening. Among other things, the sales areas of the stores which will be open are larger than the surface area of the planned event (i.e. the Christmas market) and this contradicts the shop opening law.

In addition to the forecasts on the number of visitors, there was merely a reference to the press coverage of past Sundays in Bonn when the shops were open for business. "As a rule, this information comes from those organizing the Sunday trading and is therefore questionable", Munkler explained.

Karina Kröber from the City Marketing Association is still waiting for a meeting with the city council. If it really is just down to the event surface areas being too small, “we will muster up enough creativity in the city to fix this in time”, she announced.

(Original text: Lisa Inhoffen, Translation: Caroline Payne)