Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – The Constitutional Court has abolished as unconstitutional Article 35a of the Law on Internal Trade, which introduced a ban on working Sundays in retail trade.

“The Court found that the said provision violates the freedom of entrepreneurship guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as the constitutional principle of equality before the law, since one group of entrepreneurs/traders was allowed to operate on Sundays and on state and other public holidays, while another group was prohibited from doing so,” the Court stated in a press release.

The Constitution precisely prescribes the grounds on which freedom of entrepreneurship may be restricted (for the protection of human health, the environment, natural resources, cultural heritage, or the security and defense of Montenegro), and the legislator may not independently introduce new restrictions outside these constitutional grounds, nor without a clearly defined legitimate aim in the public interest.

“By allowing one group of entrepreneurs (pharmacies, confectioneries, bakeries, newspaper kiosks, souvenir shops, florists, funeral equipment stores, plant protection shops, petrol stations, markets, etc.) to operate, while prohibiting another group from doing so, the legislator placed one group of economic operators in an unequal position compared to another. Such a ban has no objective and reasonable justification, from the perspective of the constitutional obligation of the state to ensure equal market conditions for all entrepreneurs,” the Constitutional Court stated.

The Court found that restricting work on Sundays and on national and other public holidays solely for certain traders constituted a limitation of human rights and freedoms and a violation of the constitutional principle of consistency of legal regulations.