Ban on trading on Sundays – from August 2023, tightening of the regulations comes into effect

The Covid Act of March 31, 2020 introduced some simplifications for sellers and loosened the rules regarding the ban on Sunday trading. The regulations assumed that the Sunday ban “does not apply to the performance of activities related to trade, consisting in on unloading, receiving and displaying essential goods and entrusting an employee or employee with the performance of such activities.

After 1,202 days, the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland was formally ended and the regulations on the state of epidemic emergency ceased to apply on July 1. The Covid law indicates that the provisions regarding the Sunday trade ban are to apply “within 30 days following their cancellation”, which means that the exception in the Sunday trade law ceases to apply from August.

The act gradually introducing a ban on Sunday trading entered into force on March 1, 2018.

From 2020, the trade ban does not apply only on seven Sundays a year: the last Sundays of January, April, June and August, as well as on the Sunday before Easter and on the two following Sundays before Christmas.

The next Sunday without a trade ban falls on August 27.

According to the regulations, on Sundays covered by the ban, only their owners can stand behind the counters of shops. However, the Act restricting trade on Sundays defines a catalog of 32 exclusions.

The trade ban does not include postal activity, if the revenues from this activity constitute at least 40% of sales revenue of the facility. In addition, it does not apply to confectioneries, ice cream parlors, petrol stations, florists, newspaper shops and cafes, among others.

For breaking the trade ban on Sundays, the penalty is from PLN 1,000 to PLN 100,000. PLN penalty, and in the case of persistent violation of the provisions – the penalty of restriction of liberty.