The German Association of hotel and restaurant busisnesses (Dehoga) supports a constitutional complaint filed by two restaurant owners in Lower Saxony and Baden-Wurttemberg against the ban on smoking. In both these Federal Laender the ban took effect on August 1st this year. According to Dehoga, its regional branches unanimously took the decision to fight against the ban on smoking.
The constitutional complaint is to be submitted to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe in a few weeks time. Mr. Rupert Scholz, who is an expert on constitutional law, in an expert opinion had previously expressed doubts on the constitutional legimaticy of the ban on smoking in Lower Saxony. According to Mr. Scholz, the ban unduely affects the rights of small gastronomers. Therefore, it was the right time to file a complaint he said.
The Dehoga association justifies the complaint by pointing to the drop in turnover suffered by owners of small gastronomic enterprises such as inns, clubs or cigar lounges which fear for their existence. The Dehoga says that their complaint is to help these small enterprises threatened with bancruptcy and that the ban as a whole was not subject of their fight.
According to Dehoga, however, if the Federal Constitutional Court was to deliver a provisional ruling against the ban on smoking, this could generally topple it. 