The Scotch Whisky Association and Others v The Lord Advocate, The Advocate General for Scotland. Case C 333/14. Opinion of Advocate General, BOT, delivered on 3 September 2015.

1. In order to reduce the consumption of alcohol, the Scottish Parliament passed, on 24 May 2012, the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012, (2) prohibiting the sale of alcohol at a price below a minimum price calculated on the basis of the content in alcohol. Following the enactment of that law, the Scottish Ministers drafted the Alcohol (Minimum Price per Unit) (Scotland) Order 2013, (3) fixing the minimum price per unit of alcohol (4) (‘minimum unit price’) (5) at pounds sterling (GBP) 0.50. 2. In proceedings brought by three associations of producers of alcoholic beverages, namely The Scotch Whisky Association, the Confédération européenne des producteurs de spiritueux and the Comité européen des entreprises vins (CEEV), (6) against the Lord Advocate and the Advocate General for Scotland, the Court of Session has asked the Court to give a preliminary ruling on whether the establishment of a minimum price is compatible with Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 (7) and with Articles 34 TFEU and 36 TFEU. 3. In this Opinion, I shall examine, in the first place, the compatibility of the rules at issue with the ‘single CMO’ regulation. In that regard, I shall maintain that that regulation must be interpreted as meaning that it does not preclude national rules, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, that presents a minimum retail price for wines according to the quantity of alcohol in the product sold, provided that those rules are justified by the objectives of the protection of human health, and in particular the objective of combating alcohol abuse, and do not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.....