The recent passing of the Public Health Alcohol Bill in the Dáil has brought much uncertainty to the Irish drinks industry. With changes and restrictions coming down the line on advertising, marketing, retail display and the one most relevant to us and our clients – the proposed changes to alcohol labelling, everyone is watching and waiting to see how much this is going to impact the industry both inside and outside of Ireland.
Alcoholic drinks labels will be required to carry a health warning similar to that seen on cigarette boxes. While the bill itself has been passed in full, the details surrounding the size, placement and content of the new health warning has yet to be defined. This is likely to be done through secondary legislation that will lay out the size, colour and font type of the printed material on the warning concerned.
With regards to implementation of the new health warnings to be displayed on labels placed on alcohol bottles, the bill states that there will be a three-year lead-in from the time it is notified to the European Commission. So, the clock hasn’t quite started ticking yet and the EU still has to approve the bill, so who knows what will happen.
Label Tech continues to monitor the situation and will be ready to advise and assist customers once the decision has been made. In the meantime it is business as usual!
