Council of State annuls Special Consumption Tax on Wine on wine

The Hellenic Council of State has ruled in favor of the cancellation of Special Consumption Tax on wine. The ruling of Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court No. 1793/3-9-2018 was published by the Greek Wine Federation on Tuesday. The judicial ruling comes as the government has repeatedly said since summer 2017 to abolish this special tax but has done nothing so far.

The special consumption tax had been in place since January 2016 and sees 0.15 euros added to the cost of a 750 ml bottle of wine or 0.20 euros to a 1-liter bottle. 

The Greek Wine Federation, together with the National Interprofessional Organization of Vine and Wine (EDOAO), the Central Cooperative Union of Wine Products (KEOSOE), the Winery of Tirnavos and D. Pagonas, a small wine producer from Serres had appealed to the Council of State since the beginning of 2016.

The move was welcomed by the country's wine industry. “We worked hard and we succeeded in being heard by the Greek courts, for the sake of the entire wine industry,” Giorgos Skouras, a winemaker in Nemea and the head of the Greek Wine Federation( said in a press release.

GWF's Director, Theodoros Georgopoulos, said the court ruling is “a great moment of vindication for the wine sector in a case with many legal aspects that will constitute a milestone in the future.”

“If we had been asked in advance, the sector would have avoided this unbearable, unjust and eventually illegal predicament,” he added.

The court's ruling, which has not been made public yet, means the tax will be automatically cancelled and no decision has to be issued by the finance ministry.