New research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) that calls for increased regulation of the online alcohol delivery sector has been labelled as inadequate and incomplete by Retail Drinks Australia.
According to the research, 69% of websites would leave alcohol unattended at an address without having verified the purchaser’s age; 12% offered delivery within two hours; 13.8% allowed customers to purchase alcohol through a “buy now, pay later” scheme; about 20% offered a 750mL bottle of wine for under $5; 81.5% offered discounts for buying more, and there was no requirement for delivery drivers to hold Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) certification.
Retail Drinks CEO Julie Ryan has disputed the findings, which she said were entirely based on a preliminary desktop audit of online retail websites, without conducting any auditing of the actual alcohol delivery practices themselves.
“Any evaluation of the online alcohol sale and delivery sector must be done in conjunction with a thorough review of retailers’ delivery practices, as the online website is only half of the transaction.
“Attempting to evaluate online alcohol sales solely on the basis of a desktop audit of websites and without any reference at all to the delivery environment leads to vastly inaccurate conclusions, which is the case in the UNSW study.
“Instead of reviewing the Australian delivery environment, the UNSW study vaguely attempts to reference mystery shopping in the Netherlands from more than seven years ago to draw the conclusion that minors may access alcohol in Australia. This is clearly irrelevant in an Australian context.”
Ryan also disputed the notion presented in the UNSW research that the current regulatory system around online alcohol deliveries is inadequate, pointing to the significant measures contained within Retail Drinks’ Online Alcohol Sale and Delivery Code of Conduct (the Code) as well as existing regulations at a state and territory government level across Australia.
“The Retail Drinks Code has established a comprehensive self-regulatory framework for the online alcohol delivery sector and already covers 80% of all online alcohol sold in Australia through its existing signatories.1
“Specific measures within the Code include a ban on any alcohol being delivered unattended on the same day and ensuring that all deliveries must be to a person over 18 and not intoxicated. For any unattended deliveries, the purchaser must have already proven their age by a method more than simply entering a date of birth online. All drivers must also be trained in a tailored home delivery RSA course and be able to recognise lawful IDs and understand the signs of intoxication.
“The co-author of the study was quick to allege that she doubts many audits are done as part of the Retail Drinks Code, and used this as a basis for disputing its effectiveness. Since UNSW made no attempt to contact Retail Drinks to ask about the Code or its audit, it probably says something about the rigour of their study that they make statements without attempting to research the facts.
“Retail Drinks’ independent Code audit partner conducts more than 200 mystery shopping audits each month to test compliance with the Code and ensure we are gaining actionable and real insights about the delivery environment to ensure responsible supply by our members.”
Government regulation
Ryan highlighted the ability for the Code to work in conjunction with regulation from state and territory governments around Australia to effectively mitigate against the risk of online alcohol delivery to minors and intoxicated persons.
In making its findings, UNSW suggested that governments had been lax in their regulation of online alcohol sale and delivery, but Ryan disagrees.
“It is disappointing that UNSW would criticise the significant work already done by government and which continues to be done in evaluating this emerging sector.
“The Code works hand in hand with state and territory regulation which cannot be described as “lax” even on their own, let alone when combined with the Code,” Ryan said.
“NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania all have their own specific legislation relating to the online sale of alcohol and provisions are also under development in Queensland at this time. These provisions range from offences for unattended same day delivery and offences for delivery to persons under 18, to requirements in relation to age verification and record keeping.
“With the combination of state and territory liquor legislation and regulations, the Retail Drinks Code and the significant focus of the liquor industry on responsible practices, there is no basis to state that the existing regulatory scheme is inadequate and no study has been produced to the contrary.”
