EU upholds German ban against laser tag games on human right

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20041014/ca_pr_on_od/eu_germany_laser_tag&e=7&ncid=1835

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union (news - web sites)'s top court Thursday backed a German ban on laser tag games in which players simulate killing each other in a maze.



"The affront to human dignity posed by that activity justifies a restriction on the freedom to provide services," the European Court of Justice ruled. Police in the German city of Bonn in 1994 had prohibited a German company, Omega Spielhallen-und Automatenaustellungs-GmbH, from operating a Laserdrome, a game developed and marketed by a British supplier.


German authorities argued that "acts of simulated homicide and the ensuing trivialization of violence" violated the principle of human dignity enshrined in the German constitution.


The owners appealed to Germany's federal administrative court, which sought a ruling from the European court in Luxembourg as to whether the ban contravened the freedom to provide services under EU law.


The court ruled that such bans "are not excluded" in Germany simply because another EU country, in this case Britain, allows the game.