The clerk may not serve if a customer doesn’t put on a face shield or respirator when entering a store. The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA) has recently dealt with several complaints of alleged discrimination against consumers. Vendors are taking extraordinary measures and banning customers from protecting the public and employees.
An emergency regulation by the Ministry of Health on the necessity of covering the mouth and nose with a respirator or mask protects vendors from allegations of discrimination. According to the CTIA, they then have the right not to allow the customer into the store or ban them.
“If a vendor refuses to serve a customer who violates the measure by not wearing the prescribed respiratory protective equipment, to protect against the spread of COVID-19, such conduct can not be considered prohibited discrimination,” the inspectorate said.
The vendors’ actions are not irrational or arbitrary. Instead, they are governed by regulations. “It does not violate the dignity of the customer,” the CTIA noted.
Meanwhile, false information was spread on social media that the inspectorate was sanctioning the sellers’ behavior. The CTIA has now refuted this. “The information that we sanction such behavior is false news that is often spread on social media,” it added.