Scottish Minimum Alcohol Pricing & EU Law

Abstract

The SNP Government in Scotland introduced Minimum Price per Unit (MPU) for alcohol in the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012. A challenge to those provisions was brought by the Scotch Whisky Association and others in SWA and Others for Judicial Review of the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 [2013] CSOH 70. This article examines the impact of the first phase of that legal challenge. The analysis is broadly in three parts: first, an analysis of the Commission Opinion on MPU which went on to have significance in the case itself; second, an analysis of the Outer House judgment itself; and, finally, a discussion of the policy choices which underlie some of the arguments advanced in the case and what they tell us about the balance between free movement and undistorted competition in the internal market.

Keywords: EU Law, Alcohol Pricing, Free Movement, Competition, Proportionality, Margin of Appreciation

JEL Classification: K19, K21