EU judges block cheap on-line booze

23/11/2006 - 09:07:10
European judges today rejected a legal bid to allow online shoppers to buy cut-price cigarettes and alcohol anywhere in Europe.

The decision is a blow to consumers hoping for a pre-Christmas bonanza.

But it is good news for the Irish Government, who had been facing a sizeable hole in revenue from domestic excise duty if the decision had gone the other way.

The European Court of Justice judges ruled that “only products acquired and transported personally by private individuals are exempt from excise duty in the member state of importation”.