The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation clarified that trade enterprises have the right to refuse service at the checkout to a buyer who does not use personal protective equipment (PPE). This court decision stated that this would be the case if regional authorities have established mandatory use of such masks.
The Smolensk Center for Law and Sociology filed a lawsuit with the court, which challenged the methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding cases of the introduction of the mandatory use of PPE in the regions.
In particular, the clause stating that if a visitor who does not use PPE is found on the territory of a shopping facility, he should be informed of the need to comply with mandatory requirements and the responsibility for violating such a regime, and if the visitor disagrees, the enterprise has the right to refuse him service at the checkout.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in its decision explained that the law on the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population imposes on citizens the obligation to comply with the instructions.
Methodological recommendations are aimed exclusively at protecting the health and life of citizens, at ensuring a safe sanitary and epidemiological situation, there are no grounds for declaring them invalid in the contested part, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation noted in the decision and rejected the claim./Tass