When “Customers Only” Parking Goes Too Far

Reserved customer parking is common. Stores, restaurants, medical offices, and other businesses often limit spaces on their private property to customers. But one drugstore in Brazil may have taken that practice a bit too far.

The drugstore treated the parking spaces in front of its location as exclusive to its customers, placing signs and cones to block off the area from the general public. There was just one problem: the spaces were on public property.

In court, the drugstore argued that the parking spaces were part of its property. The court, however, disagreed. It found not only that the spaces were part of the public roadway, but also that their location directly in front of the store didn’t make them private.

Brazilian traffic regulations generally prohibit private businesses from reserving parts of a public roadway for their customers. For example, one such federal regulation provides that designated parking areas on public roads must be established and regulated by the traffic authority with jurisdiction over the road.

Ultimately, the court gave the drugstore 24 hours to remove the signs restricting the spaces to customers or warning that other vehicles could be towed. If the store failed to comply, it faced a daily fine.

Of course, businesses in Brazil can still reserve parking spaces on their own property. But the space in front of a store isn’t necessarily part of the store. And no matter how many signs or cones a business puts up, it can’t turn a public roadway into a private parking lot.