Amazon still selling Scots cheap alcohol
RETAIL giant Amazon is defying the SNP’s crackdown on cheap alcohol by using a loophole to keep selling booze below the legal minimum price.
Almost six months after the Scottish Government introduced Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP), it only takes a click of a button to get cheap alcohol delivered to the door.
Last week, The Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed drinking levels actually rose in the months immediately after MUP came into force.
Now it has emerged that the world’s biggest online retailer is continuing to sell alcohol to Scots below the stipulated level. Consumers can buy, for example, a litre bottle of Bell’s whisky or a litre bottle of Gordon’s gin for £16 each, which is the equivalent of 40p per unit of alcohol. That is well below the 50p per unit legal limit enforced in shops and off licences. It is not illegal for online retailers to sell at below the minimum unit price, as long as the alcohol is delivered from outside Scotland. However, other major retailers have stopped doing so.
The Scottish Government previously insisted online sales account for only a small proportion of the country’s alcohol consumption, which is higher than elsewhere in the UK. However, the impact will be the subject of research designed to evaluate the effect of the legislation.
A government spokeswoman said: ‘Minimum pricing applies to all alcohol sold within Scotland, including online sales dispatched in Scotland, and we expect the law to be observed.
‘Given the clear and proven link between consumption and harm, minimum unit pricing is targeted to tackle the cheap, high-strength alcohol that causes so much damage to so many families.’
Online sales is not the only loophole to affect minimum pricing. The Scottish Government announced it would amend the law to stop wholesalers, who supply other businesses and the general public, selling below 50p per unit.
The SNP promised that the new law would save lives ‘within months’, but Amazon’s refusal to adopt the Scottish Government’s pricing will add to fears that any effect will be minimal.
Amazon declined to comment.