Bakers' seven-day trading ban lifted

BAKERS in the Landes have won a legal victory against an order banning them for selling bread to customers seven days a week.

A court in Pau ruled that the arrété préfectoral dating back to 1999 which imposed a one-day-a-week closure was illegal.

The decision comes after a highly publicised case last autumn when four bakers in Dax and Saint-Paul-les-Dax were fined €500 for opening their boulangeries every day.

At the time, one of the bakers said he was "ashamed to be in France" and the enforced closure would mean less VAT and social charges for the French state. The Républicains party campaigned for the bakers to be let off.

The Pau court overturned the ban on a legal technicality, as it had been signed by only two of the organisations representing bakers in the department - another five groups acting on a local and national level should also have been consulted.

The Landes préfecture has two months in which it can appeal against this latest ruling. Until then, the bakers can resume seven-day working immediately.