Norway's tough new anti-smoking law has left restaurants with new losses: Smokers who say they're just stepping outside for a cigarette often don't return to pay for their food and drink.

Restaurant owners already have complained that their revenues are down after a smoking ban was imposed in all public places last summer.

Now, newspaper Dagsavisen reports that a nationwide trade association is seeing more cases of customers running off from their bills.

Clodion Art Café in Oslo, for example, averaged one bill-dodging a week before the new smoking law took effect. Now the café's up to three a week, sometimes more, says manager Vibeke Slatheim.

The problem is that it's become common for bar, café and restaurant guests to leave their tables and go outside for a cigarette, since they can't smoke inside. Officials thought the trend would taper off when the winter cold set in, but it hasn't.

The busy holiday party season has resulted in scores of people standing out on sidewalks and in the streets, puffing away, even in sub-zero temperatures.

Some simply don't bother to return to their table and pay the check. "People seem to lower the threshold for skipping out on paying, when they're already standing out in the street with their coat on," said Baard Fiksdal of the trade association (Reiselivsbedriftenes Landsforening, RBL).

Fiksdal said it's also become more difficult for restaurant personnel to keep an eye on their customers after the smoking ban took effect.

Via Aftenposten News in English.

Environment [00:00]