Smoking in night-time restaurants: Where there is no plaintiff, there is no judge?

CATFISH. For some time now, the Welser Zeitung has been receiving an increasing number of letters of complaint from readers: Despite the legal ban that has been in force since 2019, smoking is being done freely in numerous nightspots in the region – apparently with the toleration of the operators. A little foray into social media shows that smoking local guests can actually be seen in numerous photos, even on the company’s official pages.

When you call some operators, no one wants to know about knowingly breaking the law in their restaurant, even if they offer to remain anonymous.

The ban is also enforced without exception in the waitress on Welser Traungasse, says operations manager Sabrina Balint-Foro: “It happens that someone lights a cigarette. When we see that, we ask people to smoke out. That’s what they do also.” With 100 guests, it’s not easy to constantly monitor the entire restaurant: “Some of the people hide their cigarettes under the table. It’s dark. We can’t catch everyone.”

No own controls

Reports of violations of the smoking ban are sent to the district administrative authorities, in this specific case these are the district authorities of Grieskirchen-Eferding and Wels-Land as well as the Wels magistrate. They follow up on reports and impose penalties if the law is actually broken. For local guests this can be up to 1000 euros. Innkeepers who are obliged to enforce the ban can be fined up to 3,000 euros for a first violation and up to 10,000 euros for a repeat offense.

In response to an inquiry from the Welser Zeitung, no reports have been received by either the BH Wels-Land or the Wels magistrate in the past two years. This could also be because there are no dedicated control bodies. The food inspectorate and labor inspectors are required to report violations. Police officers can only pass on information to the administrative authorities if they notice smokers in a bar during an operation. However, there are no independent checks to ensure compliance with the legal ban without cause.

Otherwise, the legislature relies on reports from guests, which are then checked by authority employees. “We rely on information from people,” says the BH Wels-Land.

Wels Deputy Mayor Gerhard Kroiß (FP) explains that he has not received any complaints: “Even informally, no one has spoken to me about violations of the smoking ban in bars.” He appeals to smokers’ common sense: “I smoked for a long time myself and am now very happy that the ban is in place. It would be important to be considerate of other guests and the staff.”

The situation at the Grieskirchen-Eferding district administration is different: “We have observed an increase in reports and complaints in the last two to three months, even though they are at a low level,” says Peter Zeilinger, the responsible head of the medical service department.

The increase affects both reports from authorities and citizens. “I’m currently focusing on two to three restaurants,” explains Zeilinger. He will carry out random checks himself to follow up on information from the public.

That’s not always easy: “If someone observes a smoker in a bar and reports it, that doesn’t mean that someone is violating the ban even during our inspection,” explains Zeilinger.

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