Court: Hairdressers can’t serve wine in their salons

The municipality of Nieuwegein will not be allowed to experiment with serving alcohol in hairdressers, or other versions of service-bar hybrids, the court in Utrecht ruled on Thursday. The lawsuit to stop this experiment was filed by the Slijtersunie. The experiment was initiated by the Association of Dutch Municipalities. Many municipalities feel that strict compliance with the Alcohol and Hospitality act is not always practical. But the Slijtersunie argued that serving alcohol in stores is still against the law. The court in Utrecht agreed. "Only under special circumstances may the municipality deviate from its enforcement duty", the court ruled, adding that this situation does not fall under special circumstances.