Our licensing legislation can be difficult at times but the following story, which featured in a recent European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) newsletter, takes some understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sweden\u2019s alcohol policy is based on the concept that food should always be available alongside alcoholic drinks because this leads to more moderate, responsible drinking. The law requires that, in order to obtain a serving permit for alcohol, pubs and restaurants must maintain a genuine food offer. The state retail monopoly Systembolaget promotes food and drink pairings and their staff are trained to make food recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recognition of this, one particular brewery, Poppels Bryggeri, posted some adverts on Instagram showing food and drink. Nothing elaborate, just food and drink. Along then comes the Konsumentverket, Sweden\u2019s consumer agency, who say that this breaks the Bildregel, a section of Sweden\u2019s Alcohol Act that limits advertising images to the drink itself, its raw ingredients or a single piece of packaging. This was in 2022. This February, the case reached the Patent and Market Court of Appeal who ruled against Poppels Bryggeri. They were given a suspended fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (\u00a339,810) if the adverts are repeated. Mats Wahlstrom, the brewery\u2019s somewhat frustrated chief executive, commented, \u201cThe ruling makes it nearly impossible to communicate about beer as part of a meal, a craft or a culture. The risk is that the result is the exact opposite of the public health goal: that communication is reduced to product and price, without responsibility, without context, and without food. In practice being only allowed to show a product image and a price will drive towards pure alcohol consumption of low-price products<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poppels\u2019 marketing director added, \u201cThat alcohol should be consumed with food has been one of the cornerstones on which Sweden has built its alcohol policy. We find it hard to see how you are supposed to do the right thing as a company when those who take responsibility are punished<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bildregel rule dates from the 1970s when there were serious concerns about mass-market alcohol promotion. There are questions as to whether it is still suitable for a market that is made up of small independent craft breweries who, unlike the multinational brewers, don\u2019t wish to promote a glamorous lifestyle and social aspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue also has EU internal market implications and Poppels are contemplating taking the matter to the EU Court of Justice. If they do so, they will have the support of the EBCU, who have already called on the Swedish government to update the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our licensing legislation can be difficult at times but the following story, which featured in a recent European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) newsletter, takes some understanding. Sweden\u2019s alcohol policy is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6267,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6265\/revisions\/6267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}