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Responsible or Irresponsible Promotions - the Authorities are beginning to bite!

We are seeing increased enforcement of what in the view of some may be ‘irresponsible promotions’ with the terms of the new Mandatory Conditions – Our previous article can be found: New Mandatory Licensing Conditions guidance and good practice.

Instead of rooting out the truly irresponsible promotion (in every sense of the true meaning of such) it is becoming clear is that some manifestly responsible promotions are being labelled to be ‘irresponsible’ by enforcement officers who then require the immediate removal of point of sale promotional material.  This of itself is not within their power.

As we have previously canvassed, to be ‘irresponsible’ a promotion must first be aimed at encouraging the sale of alcohol for consumption in a manner which carries a "significant risk of leading or contributing" to crime and disorder, prejudice to public safety / public nuisance or harm to children. Responsible operators who can demonstrate that their promotions have been framed with an eye on the licensing objectives, should be able to argue in many cases that the promotion – whatever it may be – does not fail this first test.

We have also seen anxiety expressed at what may be perceived as a significant discount of a premium priced product; again if you analyse this promotion (for example) by cost per unit of alcohol, you are likely to be able to demonstrate that this is still a ‘premium priced product’, and unlikely to lead to the risk identified above.

What our experience dictates is that operators should ensure that teams at house level are briefed as to how to deal with such an enforcement visit – and not necessarily to accept that what is being alleged against them, is necessarily correct.  It may be worth remembering that a ‘due diligence’ defence should be available for criminal prosecutions of this type – if it comes to this – and some form of risk assessment is respect of such promotions as against the licensing objectives would be useful tool to address enforcement officers concerns going forward.

Clearly there is going to be some uncertainty of interpretation for some time to come.

If you would like further information on how to address this, please get in touch.