Luxembourg, 02/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - Germany may accord a special status to the principle of respect for human dignity, by making it into a fundamental value included in the German Constitution. A company cannot, therefore, challenge a ban on exercising an activity which Germany feels runs counter to human dignity on the grounds that this activity is allowed in another Member State, the United Kingdom.
In the city of Bonn, the activity in question took place in a "Laserdrome", which was managed by the German company Omega, and in which players used laser rays to try to "kill" other players wearing jackets fitted with sensory tags. The opposition of some of the population led German police to ban the game on the grounds that simulated homicidal acts and the trivialisation of the violence this led to ran counter to the fundamental values prevalent in German public opinion.
The company Omega felt that this game, which was allowed in the United Kingdom, should be permitted in Germany too, in the name of freedom to provide services in the EU. In terms of a purely legal response looking at the notion of public order and the proportionality of measures to ban this kind of activity, the European Court of Justice replied as follows: Community law allows a Member State to ban "the commercial exploitation of games simulating acts of homicide by reason of the fact that that activity is an affront to human dignity".