Quote Originally Posted by lisvaneblue View Post
I look at the restrictions on retail in two ways. Fist the closure of non essential shops by the Senedd is OK as its a public health issue and part of the 'fire-break'. Some shops remaining open is another part of the plan to give people access to 'essential 'shopping

Producing a list of non essential items is getting into micro management but is OK.

However, instructing essential shops, mainly supermarkets, to stop selling non essential items in order to be 'fair to closed shops and to level things up' is nothing to do with public health, and sits in the area of commerce and the UK competition act. I doubt it's within the remit of the Senedd to do this and on the surface it appears anti-competitive. For sure the UK Competition act is not devolved.
Perhaps WG would argue it's allowing the smaller shops to be competitive. How can supermarkets being restricted be anti-competitive when supermarkets have less competition at the moment?

In any case, I would imagine that any reasonable legislation to help fight Covid would take precedence and rightly so.