Dutch pub owners have launched a coordinated resistance against a smoking ban introduced in June, taking their ashtrays out of short-lived storage and pooling cash to pay the resultant fines.
Thousands have joined groupings intent on countering the law seen by many as un-Dutch and patriarchal; approaching the courts for relief and daring authorities to try and stop their clients from lighting up.
My clients are all regulars. They come here to play cards and dice. Ninety-five percent of them smoke, that's just the way it is, Jef Broeren, owner of the cafe De Kauw in Tilburg in the south of the country, told AFP.
Less than a week after the ban came into effect, Broeren brought the ashtrays out again after initially trying to comply.
Neighbours complained about the smokers on the pavement and I saw my profits dwindling, he explained.
The Dutch health inspectorate VWA said this week that nearly one in four of the 750 pubs inspected in the past three months did not abide by the law.
There were different degrees of disobedience, it said in a statement. In about 100 pubs there were slight violations, while 75 were deliberately flouting the law.
In this last group, "not a single measure was taken to give effect to the smoking ban", said the VWA.
Broeren and other defiant pub owners from around the country came up with a plan in September to create a pool of money to pay the fines likely to befall them.