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Shopkeepers who refuse entry to unvaccinated people are within their rights'

Immediately after the Dutch government’s press conference about the new coronavirus measures, a shopkeeper in Eindhoven hung up a notice in his window saying ‘No vaccination: no entry’. Even though he is not enforcing his own rule, he is receiving threats.

Alex Geert Castermans

The note and the heated reactions to it are exemplary of how society in the Netherlands is struggling with people who refuse to get vaccinated.

The shopkeeper is acting within his rights according to Professor of Civil Law Alex Geert Castermans in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. 'In the Netherlands you can decide yourself who you do business with and on what terms.’ A numbers of grounds are included in the law which prohibit refusing people, for example gender and religion. 'But whether a person is vaccinated or not is not mentioned.'

Castermans also refers to the shopkeeper’s note below his message: people who could not be vaccinated for medical reasons were allowed to enter the shop. 'That’s precisely one of the exemptions that have to be considered. If you refuse a person who cannot get vaccinated because of a certain medical condition, you would be acting in breach of the law. But that’s not the case here.'

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