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VIENNA (LifeSiteNews) — Over 70 Austrian retailers have sent a petition to the government calling for an immediate end to the requirement for customers to show proof of vaccination or recent recovery imposed on stores.

“With the end of the lockdown for the unvaccinated and the introduction of compulsory vaccination, the time has come when no one has any more understanding for this measure,” said Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the Federal Trade Section in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ), who launched the petition.

The 70 signatories sent their petition to the Austrian government last Saturday, January 30, and asked for the repeal of the 2G rule currently imposed on retail stores as of February 1.

2G is the term used in German-speaking countries to refer to a rule that only allows people who can show proof that they have either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have recently recovered from the disease in order to gain access to certain premises.

For retail stores, that includes customers and employees.

The rule is very restrictive: People who haven’t been vaccinated or haven’t recently recovered from COVID are unable to access these places even if they show a negative COVID test.

Among the signatories are numerous well-known retail companies such as IKEA, the KIKA/Leiner Group, furniture chain XXXLutz, shoe retailer Deichmann, and electronics giant MediaMarkt.

A number of supermarket chains such as Spar, the Rewe Group, Hofer, and Lidl also supported the petition, though they aren’t themselves subject to the 2G rule.

Put together, the list of signatories makes up for a strong resistance against the measure, which has become even less justifiable now that universal mandatory vaccination has come into effect (but won’t be enforced until at least mid-March) in Austria, as was also pointed out in the petition.

In addition, the signatories argued that “shopping in Austria is almost harmless virologically and is not a driver of the pandemic.”

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