Marking of alcohol on consumer packaging

Draft Act amending certain acts in the field of tax administration and the competence of the CustomsAdministration of the Czech Republic

The purpose of the notification is to amend Sections 5 and 15 of Act No 307/2013 on the compulsorymarking of alcohol, as amended, contained in the draft Act amending certain acts in the field of taxadministration and the competence of the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic (part ninety-six).

The purpose of the amendment to these provisions is to extend the range of maximum permitted sizes forconsumer containers of alcohol The draft Act will also allow the use of consumer containers with a volume over3 litres and up to 5 litres made of glass, but these containers will have to be fitted with a one-way closure. Theterm 'one-way closure' is already used in the Act, but the Act does not define it directly, but assumes that it is aterm of general language (within the given business sector), the meaning of which follows without furtherimplication. It is a closure that, under normal conditions, does not allow the consumer container to be refilledwithout the cooperation of the manufacturer – this characteristic has to be considered both materially andtechnically neutral; this is usually e.g. an attachment connected to the neck of the bottle, but can also be inother forms to prevent refilling, e.g. in the form of an additional tapping device (using a mechanical barrier orelectronic flow monitoring). In the given context, the consumer containers of alcohol permitted in restaurantsare being also regulated.
Thus, the following sizes of consumer containers of alcohol will now be allowed on the market:
• up to and including 1 litre – no restrictions on material and closures;
• over 1 litre up to and including 3 litres – only glass containers with no restrictions on closures;
• over 3 litres up to and including 5 litres – only glass containers with a one-way closure only.
In relation to the increase in sizes of consumer containers, this matter is also modified for restaurant facilities,with the following new sizes of consumer containers of alcohol being permitted in the following quantities (perpoint of sale or per dispensing point):
• 1x open container of one kind up to and including 1 litre – no restrictions on closure;
• 3x open containers of one kind up to and including 1 litre – only with a one-way closure;
• 1x open container of one kind of more than 1 litre and up to and including 3 litres – only glass and at thesame time only with a one-way closure;
• 1x open container of one kind over 3 litres and up to and including 5 litres – only glass container and with aone-way closure only.
Given the legal definition of the type of consumer containers, which does not distinguish between the size ofthe container (‘type of consumer container means, for the purposes of the Act, a consumer containerdifferentiated according to its name and manufacturer’), the above variants are to be understood as mutuallyexclusive, since through the presence of a single container the given type of consumer container is alreadypresent at the given location, regardless of size (i.e. it is not permissible for another consumer package of thesame type but of a different size to be present in a given place). In the case of the variant of 3x of opencontainer of a single type up to and including 1 litre (only with a single-way closure), the simultaneouspresence of a container of the same type but of a different size is explicitly forbidden by the Act.
Basic text: Act No 307/2013 on the compulsory marking of alcohol
Prior notifications: 2020/0336/CZ
Keywords: alcohol, consumer container, distribution and sale of spirits