EU’s legal warning on drink price plan
SNP’s minimum cost risks breach of trade rules
SNP plans to hike the cost of alcohol have been dealt a devastating blow after europe’s most senior legal adviser said i t risked breaching eU trade rules. The announcement has dramatically increased the chances of victory for responsible drinkers when a longrunning court battle finally comes to an end.
It is thought that tens of thousands of pounds of public money has been spent by the Scottish Government defending its ‘minimum pricing’ policy, despite being warned from the start it would be torpedoed by europe.
The Scottish daily mail exclusively revealed as far back as September 2012 how the european Commission believed the plans were ‘not compatible’ with the eU Treaty.
Yesterday, following the opinion from european Court of Justice advocate general Yves Bot, Nicola Sturgeon again refused to back down and said drinkers could still be forced to pay more.
minimum Unit Pricing (mUP) would see a 50p-per-unit minimum price – putting up the cost of a crate of 24 standard lagers to £21.65.
Research has suggested that supermarkets could receive a £140million-a-year boost from the policy, while drinking levels may fall by only half-a-pint of beer a week.
The Scotch Whisky Association ( SWA) started l egal action against the proposal in 2012, claiming it was not within the powers of Scottish ministers and was incompatible with eU law.
Lord doherty at the Court of Session dismissed the SWA’s claims– to the delight of ministers and health campaigners.
But an appeal to the court’s inner house was launched almost i mmediately, and the battle shifted to europe.
In his new opinion, mr Bot has said an eU member state can only introduce such a policy if it demonstrates more advantages or fewer disadvantages than other alternatives.
He concluded it was ‘difficult to justify’ minimum pricing as it appeared ‘less consistent and effective’ than increasing taxes and ‘may even be perceived as being discriminatory’. It is highly likely that the european Court of Justice (eCJ) in Luxembourg will now uphold that opinion, before the Court of Session in edinburgh makes its f i nal decision.
The SNP is likely to launch a last-ditch argument that it does not have the power to raise taxes on alcohol, as this is reserved to Westminster, and could ultimately take the battle to the Supreme Court in London.
The final result will not be known until next year.
SWA chief executive david Frost said: ‘The opinion encourages us in our long-held view that mUP is illegal when there are less trade-restrictive measures available.’
Graeme Young, a competition partner with law firm CmS, said the opinion ‘will set a very high bar for the Scottish Government in terms of defending its minimum price per unit legislation in the Court of Session’.
But First minister miss Sturgeon remained upbeat and said: ‘This initial opinion indicates it will be for the domestic courts to take a final decision on minimum unit pricing.’
The chairman of the British medical Association in Scotland, dr Peter Bennie, said: ‘every year of delay to the implementation of this policy comes with a human cost of lives lost.’