Ill-considered Regulation: A Barrier to entry for Liquor distributors

The Court confirmed that you can sell liquor online to the public without storing it on licensed premises.

For example, many businesses ship liquor directly from the supplier to the customer, so the seller never stores the stock. In these cases, the licensed premises often serve only as an office, and sometimes even as a home office, depending on zoning rules.

However, the same rule does not apply to sales made to the trade (restaurants, hotels, liquor stores). Since the 2013 amendment to the Liquor Act regulations, the National Liquor Authority has required that premises selling to other licensed businesses carry zoning for “warehousing and distribution of liquor.” Even so, they enforce this rule when sellers do not store liquor there.

As a result, entrepreneurs must apply for a warehouse licence, which adds cost and complexity.

The solution, therefore, is a regulatory change. If the Minister of Trade Industry and Competition updates the rule to match how businesses operate, admin-only premises could qualify. This way, they would stand on the same footing as businesses selling online to the public.

Importantly, because the regulation sets this requirement, not the Act itself, Parliament does not need to approve the change. Instead, the Minister can approve it directly.