Growers who wanted to take part in the Closed Coffeeshop Chain Experiment had to meet several requirements, including having a confirmed cultivation site. One applicant tried to increase his chances by submitting a single application that listed fifty one possible sites. Among those locations was a greenhouse in Breda, and that specific site was the only one the minister accepted.
Later, the Breda location turned out to no longer be available. Because of that, the grower who had already been selected for participation was removed from the experiment. The grower has taken the matter to court, which has now led to a recent ruling from the Council of State.
The lower court had already sided with the ministry, saying the exclusion was justified. In the view of the court, once the Breda site fell through the grower was not allowed to switch to another location. A change of site would require revising the entire business plan and would also require the mayor to issue a new opinion. According to the court, a change is only possible in a situation of force majeure, and that threshold was not met here.
The grower appealed, arguing that the business plan fulfilled all the requirements for cultivation at the greenhouse in Breda and that the ministers were wrong to insist that the proposed location must still be available after the application has been submitted.
The Council of State did not follow that reasoning. It noted that the appeal repeated almost the same arguments used in the previous case and ruled that the business plan and the proposed cultivation site cannot be separated from each other. The appeal has been dismissed.
