As of September 25, cafés, restaurants, entertainment and sports venues will be required to ask their indoor customers for a corona pass — at least, that’s the official plan. However, businesses will not be immediately fined if they admit people without a pass.
Ever since the official announcement of this new measure during the latest press conference, the message from many hospitality workers, business owners, and even the mayor of Amsterdam, has been simple — it’s not possible.
These sectors do not have the staff to required to check every patron for their corona pass, meaning that many will not even ask for the proof.
READ MORE | Ignoring the rules: many Dutch café owners say they won’t check coronavirus passes
No immediate fine — but only if it doesn’t continue
While the cabinet has set aside a whopping €45 million to fund the job of checking these passes, the task remains too large. As a result, municipalities will only be checking ‘locations that they consider to be the greatest risk of contamination and/or non-compliance’, according to the ministry.
READ MORE | Terraces are exempt from checking corona passes — unless you need the toilet
In the cases where they do discover that a businesses has not asked its patrons for their corona passes, there will only be a fine if they continue to fail to ask, RTL Nieuws reports.
While a warning may sound nice, the Dutch government are playing no games.Once a business does get fined, it’s a hefty one.
A business may receive an order subject to penalty of anywhere between €2,500 and €10,000. In extreme cases, the establishment may even be shut down.
What are your thoughts on this upcoming measure? Tell us in the comments below!
Feature Image: Free-Photos/Pixabay
Typical Dutch law- a law on paper only. No intention of enforcement. But looks good from outside and government can always claim “offense” is not legal and not encouraged. Hypocrisy at its honed finest