EU court says MUP ‘could break rules’

The European Court of Justice has said Scotland’s plans for minimum unit pricing could break the EU’s rules on free trade.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (Photo: Flickr)

Advocate general, Yves Bot, said the measure could only be legal if no other mechanism was capable of delivering the public health benefits the Scottish parliament claims would result from its imposition.

“This opinion was widely expected but will be welcomed by the Scotch Whisky industry,” said Graeme Young, a competition partner with law firm CMS. “The advocate general restates well established principles of EU law, and assuming it is followed by the Court of Justice, 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.”

The Scottish parliament passed legislation to bring in a MUP of 50 pence in May 2012 which was immediately challenged by the Scotch Whisky Association.

The SWA had taken the case to the European courts last year after the legal bid in Scotland was rejected in 2013.

David Frost, chief executive of the SWA, said: “We welcome the advocate general’s opinion on minimum unit pricing of alcohol. The opinion encourages us in our long-held view that MUP is illegal when there are less trade restrictive measures available.

“We await the Court of Justice’s final ruling.

“It remains important to address alcohol misuse with a range of other measures of proven effectiveness. We will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders on this. There is a long-term trend of falling alcohol-related deaths and harms in Scotland which suggests that measures in place are working.”

Linda Bauld, professor of Health Policy at Stirling University’s Institute for Social Marketing, told BBC Scotland: “The reason the Scottish parliament passed this measure is that there is strong and clear evidence that increased price reduces both hazardous drinking and alcohol problems.

“It is really unfortunate that we have had this delay because of this legal case.

“We know that since minimum pricing was passed in the Scottish Parliament, around 2,500 Scots have died because of alcohol. If we could raise the minimum price, we know we could save some lives and also the other harm caused by alcohol in Scotland.”

The case must now be referred back to the Court of Session for a final decision, which could take up to six months.