Selling alcohol

[tommyw]

does anyone know if you need some sort of licence to sell homebrewed alcohol from an internet website?

[nickmo]

Yes.

The �Licensable Activities� as described in the legislation means any premises undertaking one or more of the described activities needs a licence under the Licensing Act 2003.

If you are selling home brew, you will also need to advise Customs & Excise who will require the premises to be bonded.

Sell to a person under 18 as well - how will you verify online? - and you can expect a fine up to �5000 for each offence.

You would need a Personal Licence for this which takes a month to apply for anyway, plus the Police, the local environmental health office, the trading standards, probably the planning authority in your region and any other interested bodies will have the right to object if they think necessary or visit the premises.

[Ethel]

And don't forget that even if it were non-alcoholic drinks you were making for sale, you would be working from home (presumably) so the council would need to be informed, and as it is drink you would be subject to all sorts of health and safety legislation.

[Buenchico]

Nickmo's answer is correct but I'm wondering whether things are still different in you sell 'in bulk'.

The recent changes to licensing legislation may have altered things but it always used to be the case that someone selling wine on a market stall or at a car boot sale was in breach of the law (because of the lack of a licence) if he sold individual bottles but it was perfectly lawful to sell the wine by the case. (i.e. 12 bottles at a time). This was because the former activity counted as a 'retail sale' but the latter was regarded as a 'trade sale'.

Chris

[heathfield]

I remember an instance in Glasgow where a filling station was selling cases of canned lager. Tthe police arrived and took away all the stock, and were going to throw charges at one and all for selling alcoholic drink without a licence.
Red-faced, they brought the stock back when they found that no licence was needed in Scotland for the sale of beer in quanities of a gallon or more.