European Union
EU law allows each Member State to set its own policy concerning work on Sundays. Working time in EU member states is addressed in the Working Time Directive: only a weekly rest after six days of work is required. The European Court of Justice in its case law on the subject, built from the 1980s, has not confirmed that Sunday should forcibly be the day of interruption. For the European Commission, "the choice of a closing day of shopping involves historical, cultural, touristic, social and religious considerations within the discretion of each Member State" .
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday: Sweden, Finland, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday on tourist declared towns and cities and currently have a very extensive list of them that includes capitals and major cities: Spain, France, Netherlands and Italy (country on which restrictions remain only at certain non touristic areas of the north).
However though the UK allows stores to open every Sunday, there are strict rules on the amount of time a store can open dependent on the square metres of the store. Any store of more than 280 square metres can only open for 6 hours each Sunday.
Read more about this topic: Sunday Shopping, Sunday Shopping By Continent, Europe
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