Bylaw could ban pub loyalty cards

Pub loyalty cards could be banned and bars forced to advertise the unit content of every drink sold under a proposed new bylaw in Greater Manchester.

They are surprising additions to the report on the draft bylaw, published today, which would ban sales of alcohol below 50p per unit.

The report for the executive board of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) suggests the bylaw should ban:

• The sale of alcohol for less than 50p

• Sales of alcohol unless the unit content is "clearly advertised"

• Loyalty, bonus, reward, discount or other special offers allowing alcohol to be bought on production of a "credit note, token or receipt of any such scheme"

Fines of £500 could be levied for breaches of the bylaw.

The proposed ban on loyalty cards mirrors action taken in Scotland, where Mitchells & Butlers appealed a warning by licensing chiefs in Dundee against its student discount card at its Scream pub the Nether Inn.

Morning Advertiser legal editor Peter Coulson said: "The drafting of the bylaw on pub loyalty cards is a nonsense and virtually unenforceable as it stands."

The report says a minimum price of 50p per unit would would reduce alcohol-related hospital admissions by 4,482 per year.

The document was drawn up by a "task and finish group" investigating the plan. It must be endorsed by the executive of the AGMA.

As it stands, Government permission is needed for the bylaw to be implemented. However, the Government is currently looking at letting councils introduce bylaws without permission from Whitehall.

In August, David Cameron said he'd look at the idea of minimum pricing via bylaws "sympathetically".

Unworkable​

BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: "It's clear that Manchester's local councils have not come up with workable scheme for introducing a local minimum price, and they say their "ultimate objective" is to use the issue to push for national legislation.

"It's common sense that locally set minimum prices will never work. What we really need is a workable scheme that tackles below cost selling that applies UK-wide.

"However, this whole process does raise worrying concerns about the way these councils are approaching the issue.

"A great deal of time and resources have been put into discussing the issue over many months, and other councils are being encouraged to join in.

"Given that the document also admits the proposal is essentially a "campaigning tool" to change national policy, and that a legal challenge would be a strong possibility, you would have to question whether Manchester's local taxpayers are getting good value for money from this whole process."

Muddled​

Paul Smith, executive director of Noctis, added: "I think that it looks a little muddled and — although we certainly support a mechanism which places some restraint on the off trade price of alcohol as we believe the differential between off and on trade pricing is far too high.

"This bylaw however seems to present some pretty unnecessary burdens on the ontrade too.

"Loyalty cards are a pretty useful and valuable way for the ontrade to build and maintain custom.

"To take that away — or at least make it difficult — seems a needless and potentially harmful intervention.

"Where there have been issues around the legality of loyalty cards in Scotland all that seems to have been created a great deal of animosity and confusion.

"Unfortunately I predict that a like-minded local bylaw in Manchester, would end up having a similar effect."