the wrath of grapes

An interesting verdict in a case before the dutch court in Den Bosch, where a liquor store union sued LimonCello.Nu, a webshop selling liquor from a storage facility on an industry terrain. The court ruled the webshop is a retail shop and should be run from a location designated for retail in stead of an industrial location. LimonCello from the AxSys group has a permit to sell liquor, but the union represents mostly conventional retail shops.

This seems interesting as a conflict between the old and new business model. This was the first verdict, I suspect there might be some appeals as the verdict could serve as precedent to force any dutch webshop to rent commercial retail real estate, that nullifies their main competitive advantage and increases the threshold to set up shop. Online retailers from other countries don’t have the problem, so it would also weaken our competitive position in the international online retail market.

I think a lot pf people will want the court to add some nuances :)