Liquor Laws and Online Purchases

The_Morrigan

I've just had an interesting conversation with one of the tesco delivery men in relation to the delivery of alcohol in orders as he was getting a wave of abuse from customers as he couldn't deliver any of the booze in their orders as he was running late and hitting their doorsteps after 10pm.

The poor guy was a wreck because of the predicament he was in, but he also didn't know why other than it's store policy, so it got me thinking...

I know you cannot purchase alcohol outside the hours of 10.30 am -10pm from an off licence, but when it comes to online shopping where the money is debited during the day has the purchase completed and the delivery of purchased and paid for items is just delivered falling outside the scope of the liquor acts or does supply under the act include the actual delivery of the item?

Cody Pomeray

Ordering a product on the tesco website only constitutes an offer, which Tesco only accept by making a delivery. So the sale is only complete at the time of delivery, as per Tesco's T & Cs.

This is also why you can 'buy' alcohol right now online (it's after 10pm as I'm writing); you're really only making an offer.

The_Morrigan

Cody Pomeray wrote: »

Ordering a product on the tesco website only constitutes an offer, which Tesco only accept by making a delivery. So the sale is only complete at the time of delivery, as per Tesco's T & Cs.

This is also why you can 'buy' alcohol right now online (it's after 10pm as I'm writing); you're really only making an offer.

Its the whole taking of money well in advance of delivery that is throwing me and the fact that you can also order alcohol from websites which are then delivered by courier...who may drop off your fragile box of goods before 10.30am cos they have no idea what's in it. Florists often have wine/champagne in their gift sets with deliveries made from 9am .

Del2005

The_Morrigan wrote: »

Its the whole taking of money well in advance of delivery that is throwing me and the fact that you can also order alcohol from websites which are then delivered by courier...who may drop off your fragile box of goods before 10.30am cos they have no idea what's in it. Florists often have wine/champagne in their gift sets with deliveries made from 9am .

Don't tell anyone or the "talk to Joe" gang will go mad. Can you imagine a country where you can get alcohol before 10am in the morning :eek:

Cody Pomeray

The_Morrigan wrote: »

alcohol from websites which are then delivered by courier...who may drop off your fragile box of goods before 10.30am cos they have no idea what's in it. Florists often have wine/champagne in their gift sets with deliveries made from 9am .

Interesting one, I suppose it would depend on how their Ts & Cs vary and when they consider the sale to have been reached.

I was in Tesco at 9:55pm few weeks ago, buying some delicious buckfast at a self service checkout. Suddenly I realised I'd left my wallet in my bedroom (I just live a couple of streets away from the shop).

Anyway, the self-service supervisor lady put the alcohol aside and printed off some sort of receipt from the machine. I came back at 10:05pm, and she scanned the receipt on her till, I paid, and I took home the wine.

Anyone want to venture whether this was illegal? I have to say, the 'wrongness' of it all made the buckfast all the more sweet.

The_Morrigan

Thats what got me..are the delivery terms separate from the purchase of alcohol under the act and is it tesco policy rather than Irish law that stops the delivery of alcohol outside of the prescribed hours.

LowKeyReturn

Doing a bit of research for this and came across this gem on Westlaw I thought I'd share:

General Note

This dog's dinner of a statute began life as the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010. That Bill, which consisted of 26 sections, grouped into 9 Parts, reached Second Stage in Dáil Éireann (721 Dáil Debates Cols 34-60), but the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 30th Dáil in 2011.

No copyright infringement intended.

Now that's what I call academic commentary!

Okay I know absolutely nothing about this but as other users of this forum will tell you that’s not stopped me in the past so here’s my little bit of research; keeping my hand in as its summer time and the exams are over.

The intoxicating Liquor Act 2003 amends Section 15 of the Equal Status Act 2000 to allow retailer to refuse to sell alcohol to persons under a certain age. Just throwing that in there next time there's some teenager whining that they weren't allowed to buy a bottle of Vodka.

Only thing I can come up with is Section 2 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1927 as amended;

(1) Save as is otherwise provided by this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person to sell or expose for sale any intoxicating liquor, or to open or keep open any premises for the sale of intoxicating liquor, or to permit any intoxicating liquor to be consumed on licensed premises…

That probably only applies to fixed premises. I would wonder if Tesco et al are exposing for sale’ on their website at 3am despite you can't actually have it at that point. I suppose it's a stupid argument as a wine catalogue doesn't become a breach just because I'm looking at it at 2am. That said if I was able to order at 2am am I in the same situation?

I was perusing through the acts to see if I could find purchase defined. I cant but I'm not particularly adept at researching legislation if I’m honest. I couldn't find anything relevant in the e-commerce Act 2000.

So no help there really but I’ve typed it all out in Word so I'm gonna post it anyways!