Free trade triumphs over public health

What are we to make of the decision of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, Yves Bot, to reject Scotland’s plans for a new minimum price regime for alcohol? Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon planned to fix a minimum price for alcohol, but this has suffered a huge blow after the European court ruled it would risk infringing EU law on free trade.

Bot found that fixing a legal price ...