Do I need an alcohol license?

[Mightymarcoose]

I am looking to start an online marketplace, where producers can sell their produce to the public. I won't be touching the products, or fulfilling orders. My logic tells me that I won't need a license as I am simply the middleman and was hoping some of you knowledgable people could give your thoughts on the matter!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mightymarcoose]

Bump!

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I had a site once that basically took an affiliate feed from tesco wines and marks and spencer. I would filter out anything that wasn't champagne and publish the rest.

My understanding was that it was tesco and M&S that were the licensed seller, not me.

Anyway, I don't know what the actual legalities were other than that both companies were more than happy and I never had any problems. Until google decided such sites were offering no value and I went from page 1 to page 10,000 overnight

 

[Mightymarcoose]

I had a site once that basically took an affiliate feed from tesco wines and marks and spencer. I would filter out anything that wasn't champagne and publish the rest.

My understanding was that it was tesco an M&S that were the licensed seller, not me.

Anyway, I don't know what the actual legalities were other than that both companies were more than happy and I never had any problems.

Thanks for the reply. To get a definitive answer, I think I need to speak to the licensing department of the local council but they are closed due to Covid!

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Thanks for the reply. To get a definitive answer, I think I need to speak to the licensing department of the local council but they are closed due to Covid!

The problem with asking questions like that is the person you speak to doesn't really understand what you are doing and just says no. That said, if you're worried about repercussions, you could just write to them instead and get on with it.

 

[BusinessXYZ]

@Mightymarcoose I'm not a lawyer nor do I claim to be in any way an expert on alcohol laws, so please take what I say with a pinch of salt.

Anyway, one thing I have found is a website called "Innpacked". If you go to the "Licensing" section, then select "Premises License Application" and then "Selling Alcohol Online for Delivery", that should give you some extra information - sorry, I couldn't post the link.

The key bit that I read here is;

It is worth mentioning that the premises licence applies to where the alcohol is distributed from and not where the telephone or internet transaction takes place.
​

They have a number and email address on the website, so perhaps it may be worth giving them a ring to clarify this if your local council department is currently closed?

Anyway, good luck with the business!

 

[Mightymarcoose]

@Mightymarcoose I'm not a lawyer nor do I claim to be in any way an expert on alcohol laws, so please take what I say with a pinch of salt.

Anyway, one thing I have found is a website called "Innpacked". If you go to the "Licensing" section, then select "Premises License Application" and then "Selling Alcohol Online for Delivery", that should give you some extra information - sorry, I couldn't post the link.

The key bit that I read here is;

It is worth mentioning that the premises licence applies to where the alcohol is distributed from and not where the telephone or internet transaction takes place.
​

They have a number and email address on the website, so perhaps it may be worth giving them a ring to clarify this if your local council department is currently closed?

Anyway, good luck with the business!

Thanks so much for the information. I really appreciate it.

 

[anonuk]

I just thought this was worth a mention but it doesn't answer your licensing question unfortunately. I built a massive website for a customer once who was a part owner of a huge cash & carry. The website was essentially an online off license and sold everything from cheap bottles of alcopops to expensive bottles of whisky.

He insisted on using a PayPal Pro Merchant account for payments and I think, largely due to the type of customer online alcohol sales seems to attract, he unfortunately experienced a higher than normal amount of fraudulent charge backs.

So if you do go ahead with this idea, be careful to make sure you use a decent payment processor that will cover your back with fraudulent chargebacks, etc.

 

[Mightymarcoose]

I just thought this was worth a mention but it doesn't answer your licensing question unfortunately. I built a massive website for a customer once who was a part owner of a huge cash & carry. The website was essentially an online off license and sold everything from cheap bottles of alcopops to expensive bottles of whisky.

He insisted on using a PayPal Pro Merchant account for payments and I think, largely due to the type of customer online alcohol sales seems to attract, he unfortunately experienced a higher than normal amount of fraudulent charge backs.

So if you do go ahead with this idea, be careful to make sure you use a decent payment processor that will cover your back with fraudulent chargebacks, etc.

Thanks for sharing your experience. We will be using Stripe for payments, exclusively to begin with.