So in a situation where you are a customer of A and X, the order you visit them would change whether or not it would be clear? A then X = clear violation, but X then A would not be, purely because you would be seen leaving your vehicle heading to X?

"But nobody is going to track you minute by minute." Unless policing the parking space has been outsourced to a company that gets to keep (part of) the fines.

@Justinw That is most likely the practical outcome. Both would be a violation, by the book, but the first is easily observable by a guard just standing there, the second would require the guard to follow you around.

IMO this last paragraph is unnecessary. From a law standpoint, a violation for which the probability to get caught is very low is still a violation all the same.

@DmitryGrigoryev It is still a grey area, because it isn't clearly defined what you are supposed to do. Are you to go straight to the store? What if you meet a friend and stop to chat? What if you stop to light a smoke? What if you don't want to ruin your new shoes and take a 20m detour on the better paved side of the road? How directly do you have to go to the store in question? Is stopping by a hot dog stand between parking and store okay? What if it isn't directly in the way, but 2m off the side? Point is: it's not clearly defined what exactly a violation is, or where it starts.

What is clearly defined though court judgements is that parking at one store's customer parking without the intention to be their customer during the parking period is a clear violation. And I think going a different direction entering another business is a pretty good example of just that.

@nvoigt I would be great if you could provide a couple references to those court judgements in your answer.

I think the key is the 'while' parking you must enter one or more of the service providers established there and leave the parking area once you exit your last store. Interesting though might be if you are classed as a favorite customer or collected purchase points - pay the fine with those.

Could you point to specific definition of "customer" applicable here? E.g. if X is an insurance company, and I have an insurance certificate issued by them, am I a customer of X until the certificate expires? Or a cleaning company that provides recurring services, and I have a contract with them for weekly cleaning next 3 months?

"Hopping along on crutches right now is." Uh, that's not a disability.. for a disabled parking space you need the official blue eu disability card.

@SUTerliakov you are a customer if you business with them reasonably involves using the parking space. Everything else doesn't count.

What! I shouldn't park there while I'm using their online website store - I'm sorely clicked off at that.

@nvoigt What if what you purchase in shop A has a direct bearing on what you buy in shop X? For example, the meat you buy from the butcher might affect the vegetables you get from the grocer. Or the colour of the tie bought in X depends on the colour of the shirt bought in A?

I feel like a lot of this discussion is very location specific. Unfortunately I frequent a city where private booting is legal. Private booting companies hire staff that absolutely does watch the lot minute to minute. They also will boot you if you leave the property for any reason regardless if you eventually patronise the store or not, and these fines have been upheld in court. The store might not even have a say in the enforcement, if the contract is between the landlord (as an additional revenue stream) and the private booting company.

@nvoigt - this answer is confusing because ........ the situation described is surreal, a private party can't issue a "ticket". Discussing the subtleties of ticket issuing by the government, ie police only serves to confuse this confusing question.