In urgent proceedings before the Berlin Administrative Court on 08.02.2021, we applied for interim relief against the obligation to wear medical masks and FFP-2 masks; moreover, against the prohibition to move only up to 15 km away from one’s own residence if the incidence of new infections exceeds 200 per 100,000 inhabitants. After receiving our application, the Berlin Senate lifted the 15 km “leash regulation” as of March 12, 2021. The ruling on the legality of the compulsion to wear FFP2 masks is still pending.

In another proceeding, the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg ruled upon our appeal against a dismissive order of the Administrative Court by interim injunction dated March 26, 2021 (OVG 1 S 21/22) that the obligation to wear a mouth-nose mask in parking lots is unlawful. Furthermore, the court found that the obligation to wear a mouth-nose mask in the open air from 24 – 06 o’clock is also unlawful: “The assumption that a situation in which the minimum distance is undercut can always arise spontaneously in an outdoor parking lot seems rather theoretical and does not do justice to the reality of life,” the Higher Administrative Court said. Regarding the nightly mask obligation, the Higher Administrative Court stated: “It is understandable that many people may meet on busy streets and squares mentioned in the appendix during the daytime and even during the evening hours, so that the minimum distance is likely to be undercut not rarely in these areas of dense pedestrian traffic; however, at least from midnight and until the beginning of the early morning business traffic, this seems rather unlikely, especially since a merely fleeting passing of people by each other is regularly not likely to be sufficient for virus transmission“.

Nathan Gelbart, managing partner of Gelbart Legal: “We are delighted with the two partial wins and now also hope to achieve the suspension of the completely arbitrary FFP2 compulsion currently ordered, for which we have already applied. Who is still able to understand the confusion of three different mask types and mask zones? Regrettably, the Higher Administrative Court upheld the contact restrictions and quarantine requirements, which we believe are clearly unconstitutional. We are not afraid to go to the constitutional courts. We will also attack the Senate’s new idea of subjecting customers at retail stores to mandatory testing.”