How does the Shopping Hours Act work?
When shops have to be open or closed is regulated in the Shopping Hours Act. But municipalities can decide for themselves whether they, for example, give a group of shopkeepers an exemption for this – so that their shop can open longer. The municipality of Nieuwegein had already arranged this legally in a so-called bye-law. As a result, all shops in the municipality could open between 12 and 7 p.m. on regular Sundays, Easter Monday and Whit Monday, Ascension Day and Boxing Day. Those times are now extended by three hours.