Wine Law

2 Some markets, such as China and the UK, are particularly favourable to this channel. Suffice it to say that every second wine consumer buys wine online at least once a month. Other countries, such as Italy, are less inclined to sell wine online, but our buying habits are changing rapidly, especially in the last year. One on three wine consumers, in Italy, buys online at least once a month, and since 2014 the value of wine sales via e-commerce has more than tripled. But how is the online sale carried out and what contractual rules apply? 4 The professional may decide to sell through his own e-commerce or through third party platforms. In the first case the professional will decide the structure of his e-commerce, its contents, the purchase process and the general conditions of sale. He will be more protected from commodity risk (competition on the basis of price only), since it will be a space where he sells only his wines. Finally, he will have no intermediation expenses, but he will have to take care of building and managing e-commerce and shipping, making it visible on search engines through marketing strategies. If, on the other hand, the professional decides to sell his wines through third party platforms (online wine shops or marketplaces) he will have less responsibility, less costs and usually more visibility. At the same time they will compete directly with their competitors and have less freedom. On the regimes of wine sales and distribution, also online, there are many profiles of interest at a contractual level: international sales, the use of e-commerce, intra-European sales, the types of contracts allowed, the peculiarities of individual countries, the formation of contracts, the use of platforms for the conclusion of sales contracts and tax regimes 5 . 4 With regard to online sale of wine within Europe see S. D., Organizing wine distribution between offline and online sales, in O. M. C ALLIANO (edited by) E-Wine. Aspetti gius-economici della ocmunicazione e distribuzione del vino online , Torino, 2018. 5 On this aspect see R. B UDDE , On line sale with European consumers. Legal requirements and information obligations , in O. M. C ALLIANO (edited by) E-Wine. Aspetti gius-economici della ocmunicazione e distribuzione del vino online , Torino, 2018.