Today the European Court of Justice ruled that minimum alcohol pricing is contrary to EU law if other tax options exist.
A legal challenge was brought by the SWA, which argued the Scottish government’s legislation breached European law.
The European court ruling said: “The Court of Justice considers that the effect of the Scottish legislation is significantly to restrict the market, and this might be avoided by the introduction of a tax measure designed to increase the price of alcohol instead of a measure imposing a minimum price per unit of alcohol.”
It added: “The court states that it is ultimately for the national court to determine whether measures other than that provided for by the Scottish legislation, such as increased taxation on alcoholic drinks, are capable of protecting human life and health as effectively as the current legislation, while being less restrictive of trade in those products within the EU.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for an emergency summit to review options:
This is a blow to the campaign to cut Scotland’s unhealthy levels of alcohol consumption. It wrecks our health and families.
Liberal Democrats backed the plans to introduce minimum unit pricing and now call on the UK and Scottish Government to hold an emergency summit to agree a new plan using all powers both reserved and devolved.
The drinks industry must step up too, especially as they have been the block to the introduction of this measure. The years invested in this must not be wasted.
Gareth Epps, who understands the pub industry due to his involvement in the Fair Deal for your Local campaign has some suggestions for a way forward on his blog.
The IFS suggests reforming tax on wine and spirits to be by unit. This would not affect the price of most products, particularly Scotch whisky, but (they think) would have a beneficial overall effect on excessive drinking.
There is something in what they are saying, if only they would address the disparity between on- and off-trade tax too. Alcohol consumed in a supervised environment (a pub) is less likely to lead to health or crime concerns, after all. But the UK Treasury doesn’t understand that.
There is one last catch. Just about any change to alcohol tax needs a change to EU law. So why not not bite the bullet and deal with all these problems together?
