Dear Member,

We wish to remind all members of the regulations regarding price promotions and illegal volume discounts of alcohol products, which have been in effect since 11 January 2021 under Section 23 of the Public Health Alcohol Act. These regulations:

1. Prohibit the award of, or use of bonus or loyalty card points in relation to the sale of alcohol products.

2. Prohibit the sale and advertisement of alcohol products at a reduced price or free of charge when sold with one or more alcohol products or another product or service.

3. Prohibit the sale and advertisement of alcohol products at a reduced price for a period of 3 days or less.

The HSE is actively looking into reported breaches of these regulations and so we would ask you to remind your employees of their legal obligations as retailers of alcohol; these regulations consider the person as liable when engaged in the above retail practices rather than the business, so it is paramount that your employees are aware that they could be at risk. A guidance document on the regulations can be found from the HSE HERE, which includes examples of prohibited price promotions and illegal volume discounts.  

Any employee engaged in these practices is in breach of the law. The penalties involved on summary conviction are:

•  A class A fine, up to a maximum of €5000 or up to 6 months imprisonment or both.
• On conviction on indictment, a person shall be liable to a fine up to €250,000 or up to 3 years imprisonment or both.

If you are aware of any suspected breaches of these regulations, we would ask you to please alert the HSE Environmental Health Service at ehs.alcoholunit@hse.ie.