As late as the 1990s in Germany, the law on store closing hours and its narrow restrictions was the subject of intense economic-policy debate. Not until 1996 was there a loosening of shop opening hours (which to that time were Monday to Friday: 7.00 18.00 hrs and Saturday to 14.00 hrs) when the 18.30 closing time was lifted and shops could open during the week between 6.00 and 20.00 hrs and on Saturdays up to 16.00 hrs. The reform was triggered by an expertise of the Ifo Institute. An evaluation of the controversial new regulations was conducted under the leadership of the Ifo Institute in 1999. Taking into account the results of surveys conducted among consumers, retailers and employees, the Ifo Institute proposed further liberalisation, recommending the following:
From the standpoint of the Ifo Institute there was and is no sound economic reason for limiting opening hours in retailing and thus restricting the action of the market participants in the distribution sector. With some delay, policy-makers accepted the findings of Ifo’s research in distribution and competition: since 2006 store closing hours are largely the domain of the German federal states and nearly all of them have deregulated shop opening hours during the week.
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