N nightly closure of vending machine shops: urgent application rejected

According to court information, the city of Nuremberg is relying on the Bavarian Shop Closing Act, which came into force in August 2025. This allows vending machine micro-supermarkets to open during general closing times and therefore without any time restrictions, including on Sundays and public holidays. Because rest on Sundays and public holidays is particularly protected by the constitution, municipalities are allowed to limit the opening of small supermarkets on Sundays and public holidays by ordinance.

In Nuremberg's old town, these shops must remain closed on Sundays and public holidays between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. by regulation. The reason given was that these vending machines were mainly visited by people going out at night, and there were noisy groups of people there and there was noticeably more waste and noise.

According to a court spokesman, the owner of a vending machine shop doubted the effectiveness of this measure in his application because it was aimed exclusively at vending machine shops. The man argued that restaurants and snack bars in Nuremberg should be open until 5 a.m. on Sundays and public holidays. If only vending machines were closed, noise disturbances could shift within the old town, but would not be significantly reduced.

“This seems entirely plausible to the BayVGH,” said the spokesman. However, there is not enough information available for a legal assessment of this aspect, such as an inventory of the noise situation at restaurants and snack bars in the old town. The judges therefore considered themselves unable to conclusively examine the legality of the Nuremberg regulation and rejected the urgent application. The final examination remains reserved for the main proceedings.

According to the BayVGH, measures to reduce noise at night are being examined in court not only in Nuremberg, but also in Regensburg and Munich.

In Regensburg, the opening of small supermarkets operated without staff is restricted throughout the city, on Sundays and public holidays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Regensburg Administrative Court declared this to be legal against the background of the shop closing law. According to the spokesman, it is not possible to predict when the BayVGH will make a decision on this matter.

The administrative court there is also dealing with official measures against restaurants and kiosks - not against vending machines - due to nighttime disturbances in Munich. This involves, for example, a ban on the sale of all alcoholic drinks to take away between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in the Maxvorstadt district, the so-called university district. The city's measures are not based on shop closing laws, but on legal bases in restaurant law and security law.