The ‘Umbrellars’ in the center of Prague, despite the court’s ban on the street, continue to offer sightseeing tours of the city | iRADIO
Everyone who has ever walked through the historic center of Prague knows them. Often exotic-looking people with colorful umbrellas luring tourists onto sightseeing buses. But recently, for the first time ever, a court banned them from offering services on the street. The resolution is available to Radiožurnál. But they continue to violate the order on consignment sales and the authorities are fumbling.
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I just need to walk through the Old Town Square in Prague from one side to the other, as an offer of a sightseeing tour by bus, two men will approach me one after the other. The first one has a green umbrella and says he is from Tunisia.
I refuse the offer of a bus ride to Charles Bridge and Kampa, but after a few meters another dark-skinned man stops me, this time holding a red umbrella.
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He tells me that half of his company’s fares will go to charity. However, offering services on the street is prohibited by the Prague market regulations. And the Municipal Court in Prague also confirmed this to this company with a preliminary measure. We quote from his resolution:
“The defendant is obliged to refrain from street sales in the territory of Prague 1 outside the establishment designated for this purpose.”
City Sightseeing Prague was sued by four other Prague tourist agencies.
“Unfortunately, it’s a piece of paper for us,” says Vojtěch Martin, the manager of one of them – travel agency MARTIN TOUR.
“You’re surprised at that. The court will decide that the law should be followed in Prague, but unfortunately it is no longer up to the court to enforce it. This is simply an activity that does not correspond to our legal conditions. Everything in cash, from pocket to pocket,” explains Martin for Radiožurnál.
How is it possible that he continues to offer his services despite the court order? Radiožurnál visited the company headquarters. However, no one knew about her at the given address in V Kotcice Street. After several phone calls, the company sent a statement from which we quote:
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“We believe our business is in compliance with all laws and the lawsuit is without merit. We support a charitable organization that has been operating in the Czech Republic for over 20 years. But of course we will respect the authoritative decision of the court.”
Observance of the market order in the field is supervised by the police. But they have powers.
“Unfortunately, we cannot solve this issue on the spot by injunctive management with a block fine. If the police come across such a case, they document the matter and hand it over to the entire relevant administrative authority for action,” explains municipal police spokesman Jan Čihák. Since the beginning of the year, they have reported 106 cases that are being handled by the municipality.
According to the office, the argument that the sellers donate part of the money to a public collection does not hold up either, and if the companies continue to violate market regulations, the municipality does not rule out a proposal to cancel the trade license.
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