Brussels, 03/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - In his opinion for the Court of Justice of the EU, Advocate General Yves Bot said on Thursday 3 September that member states should increase taxation of alcoholic beverages rather than set a minimum price that depends on alcohol content.
This case (C-333/14) refers to Scottish legislation (which has yet to come into force) that seeks to introduce minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol with which retailers of alcoholic beverages will have to comply. The draft legislation, which sets the MUP at 50 pence (€0.68) per unit of alcohol was referred to the European Commission and was deemed to be an “unjustified import quantitative restriction”.
A number of Scottish and European associations and bodies have also challenged the validity of the proposal and have lodged a complaint in the Scottish Court of Session which asked the EU Court of Justice if the planned introduction of minimum unit pricing is in line with the principle of the free determination of prices (CMO regulation) or the prohibition of quantitative import restrictions and whether the measure can be justified on the grounds of protecting public health.
In the view of the Advocate General, the Scottish proposal is compatible with the CMO regulation insofar as the principle of the free determination of sales prices does not preclude national authorities from adopting proportionate measures to protect health and, in particular, to tackle alcohol abuse.
The Advocate General then went on take the view, as did the European Commission, that the proposed legislation is indeed a quantitative import restriction. He said, however, that a restriction of the sort may objectively be justified by the goal of protecting health, even though this may constitute a barrier to trade within the EU. The national court will determine if this is so in this case, that is to say, if no other measures exist that could achieve the same objective with fewer restrictions (costs/benefits analysis).
While it will be for the national court to make the final decision, Advocate General Bot wanted to suggest that just such an alternative measure exists. He recommended an increase in the taxation of alcoholic drinks, which would, in his view, have the advantage of achieving the desired objective of tackling alcohol abuse and the dangerous and harmful consumption of alcohol while being less of a restriction on trade. (Jan Kordys)