No more duty-free booze at KEF?
Photo: Heiddi mbl.is/Heiddi
The duty-free store at Iceland’s main international airport is selling alcohol illegally, according to an Icelandic wholesaler of alcohol drinks.
Under Icelandic law, the Icelandic Alcohol and Tobacco Monopoly (ÁTVR) is the sole legal vendor of alcohol for off-premises consumption in Iceland.
HOB Vín, an Icelandic wholesaler of alcohol drinks, maintains that the Iceland’s current Alcohol Act contains no provision allowing duty-free alcohol to be sold at the airport.
Such permission did exist in previous versions of the legislation, but was removed when the Act was overhauled back in 1998 and never replaced.
This means that ÁTVR is now the only outfit legally authorised to sell alcohol retail in Iceland and that the Duty Free Store at Keflavík International Airport is doing so illegally, claims HOB VÍN.
Old customs legislation also empowered the finance minister to authorise the sale of alcohol at duty-free establishments, but even this provision fell by the wayside when the new Customs Act was adopted in 2005.
A lawyer has been brought into the case and charges against the KEF Duty Free Store have been pressed.
