Selling wine online in France: the essentials

Wine shops and estates: who needs what

French law treats selling alcohol at a distance, online included, as selling it to take away (Code de la santé publique, article L3331-4). What you need depends on what you are:

• Wine shops and other resellers need a take-away licence (article L3331-3): the petite licence à emporter for ‘third group’ drinks such as wine, beer, cider and mead, or the licence à emporter for every drink whose sale is allowed, spirits included. A new licence is declared in writing at the town hall at least 15 days in advance. Because online sales count as take-away, the take-away licence for your shop is the one that matters.
• Wine estates selling their own wine need no licence when they sell the produce of their own harvest directly to consumers (article L3336-5). The exemption stops at your own harvest: reselling another grower's wine makes you a drinks retailer, licence included.
• Night-time sales: anyone who sells alcohol to take away between 22:00 and 8:00 must first complete a specific training course, the permis de vente de boissons alcooliques la nuit, valid for ten years. This covers online sales. No official text says whether simply accepting web orders at night, for dispatch during the day, counts; if your shop takes orders around the clock, ask your town hall.

The licences and the declaration are explained on Entreprendre.Service-Public, and night sales on a separate page. The ban on sales to minors and the Loi Évin apply to everyone, estates included.

No sales to minors

In France, selling alcoholic drinks to minors is prohibited, and the person who hands over the drink must ask the customer to prove they are of age (article L3342-1). Selling to a minor is punishable by a €7,500 fine (article L3353-3). For an online shop, that means:

• The official banner. Websites selling alcohol must show a fixed, visible message stating that the sale of alcohol to under-18s is prohibited, across the full width of the home and payment pages (arrêté of 17 October 2016, article 4).
• An age confirmation at checkout: customers confirm that they are 18 or over before they can order.
• A check at handover. The legal duty sits with whoever hands over the drink. At collection, ask for ID if in doubt, as you would at the counter; when you deliver yourself, the same applies at the door.
• Shipping with a signature, so the parcel is handed to a person rather than left on a doorstep.

One more rule surprises many sellers: websites selling alcoholic drinks must also offer breathalysers for sale, with a notice about them on the payment page (arrêté of 30 March 2021). Growers' unions consider producers selling their own harvest exempt; check with yours.

The Loi Évin: what your shop can say

The Loi Évin, passed in 1991 and now part of the Code de la santé publique, governs alcohol advertising in France. Online communication is an authorised medium, except on sites aimed mainly at young people and on those published by sports organisations, provided the advertising is neither intrusive nor interstitial (article L3323-2). The law applies on websites and social media alike, so your product pages, newsletters and posts promoting your wines all count, and so do posts by influencers you work with (law of 9 June 2023, article 3).

The content is limited to objective information about the product (article L3323-4):

Every advertisement must also carry a health message stating that alcohol abuse is dangerous for health. The familiar ‘L'abus d'alcool est dangereux pour la santé, à consommer avec modération’ adds a customary second half; only the first part is required. Put it in your shop's footer, so it appears on every page, and on every newsletter and post that promotes your wines.

Estates have some room to tell their story: content about a wine region, its terroir, history or know-how, for wines with a protected origin or quality label, is not treated as advertising (article L3323-3-1). Our photo guide shows how to photograph bottles within the rules.

Prices, taxes and customers' rights

• Prices include all taxes. Prices for consumers are shown in euros, all taxes included (TTC): VAT at 20% and excise duties are part of the price (arrêté of 3 December 1987; see Entreprendre.Service-Public).
• Delivery charges before the order. Customers must know the full delivery cost before they order, along with who you are and how to cancel (Code de la consommation, article L221-5). Charges that weren't disclosed don't have to be paid (article L221-6).
• 14 days to change their mind. A customer who buys wine online usually has 14 days from delivery to withdraw (article L221-18). Wine doesn't deteriorate rapidly, so the fresh-food exception doesn't apply. Say before the order who pays for returns. Since 19 June 2026, online sellers must also offer a simple online withdrawal function (article L221-21).
• En primeur is different. There is no withdrawal right for alcoholic drinks delivered more than 30 days after the order whose agreed price depends on market fluctuations beyond your control (article L221-28, 7°). Tell buyers so before they order.

Shipping cases without breakage

Glass, liquid and weight make wine one of the harder things to send. A few habits keep breakages rare:

• Use packaging made for wine: moulded pulp or cardboard inserts that hold each bottle away from the sides of the box, in sizes for 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12 bottles. Ordinary boxes stuffed with paper are where breakages come from.
• Test before you sell. Pack a case of bottles filled with water and drop it from waist height onto each face. If anything moves inside, it will move in transit.
• Price shipping per case. A 75 cl bottle weighs around 1.2 to 1.6 kg depending on the glass, so a packed case of six often weighs 8 to 10 kg, and carriers charge by weight.
• Check your carrier's rules. La Poste's consumer pages say drinks up to 24% alcohol can go by Colissimo or Chronopost, spirits above that can't be posted, and abroad it depends on the destination (La Poste). Business contracts have their own terms: check yours, and its breakage cover.
• Watch the weather. In a heatwave or a hard frost, hold shipments or suggest collection: a day in a hot van can harm a good bottle.
• Plan for the odd breakage. In a consumer sale, when you choose the carrier, the goods travel at your risk until the customer takes possession of them (Code de la consommation, articles L216-1 and following; see the DGCCRF's guidance). Ask customers to report damage with a photo, and replace or refund quickly.

Excise duties travel with the wine too. Within France, bottles move with CRD capsules (capsules représentatives de droits) or with a simplified accompanying document, which can be an invoice or another commercial document; since 30 June 2025 the rules, including those for parcels sent to private customers, are in décret n° 2025-590. The customs page on moving bottled wine and your customs office will confirm what applies to you.

Belgium: quick notes

• Ages changed in 2024. Since 12 April 2024, no drink above 0.5% alcohol may be sold to under-18s, except beer and wine (as the law defines them: wine of up to 15% alcohol with no added alcohol), which may be sold from 16. Port and other fortified wines, and beers with added spirits or spirit flavourings, are 18+. The seller may ask for proof of age, and alcohol vending machines have been banned since July 2024 (law of 24 January 1977, as amended).
• Shipping from France to Belgian consumers is a distance sale of excise goods. Duty is due in Belgium, paid by you or by an approved tax representative, and you must register and guarantee payment before the first shipment (Belgian law of 22 December 2009, article 37). VAT is due in Belgium, and French duty already paid can be refunded. French customs explains the procedure for online sales of alcohol to other EU countries.
• Payment: Belgian customers are used to Bancontact. Our payments guide explains how it works and what it costs.

Before you open

• Take-away licence declared, or producer status confirmed, with the night-sales training if you sell between 22:00 and 8:00.
• The under-18 banner on the home and payment pages, an age confirmation at checkout, and ID checks at collection and delivery.
• Breathalysers offered for sale, with their notice on the payment page, unless you are exempt.
• The health message in the footer, and product pages written as objective information.
• Prices including all taxes, with delivery charges shown before the order.
• Withdrawal and returns explained, with en primeur sales marked as such.
• Packaging tested, carrier checked for alcohol and breakage, signature on delivery.
• Excise paperwork sorted with customs, especially before shipping to Belgium or elsewhere in the EU.

Wine shops can see how a Shop tab sells cases, gift boxes and tasting places on our page for wine shops, and estates on our page for wine estates. Two fictional demo stores show it in practice: La Cave Sorbel, a wine shop, and Domaine de Brévaille, a wine estate.