Non Eu Rule.

[Caran]

Daughter and husband went to a non EU European country for the weekend ( can't remember which one) (it's an age thing)
They went to duty free at the airport, saw a fancy bottle of gin with cucumber in it, thought Mum would like this. Went to buy it, were asked to show passports which they did. Were then told sorry cannot sell you alcohol you are in an EU country. Has anyone heard of this before? Seems very strange.

[bednobs]

so were they in a EU country or not in an EU country?
perhaps it was to do with the EEA?

[Caran]

They were holidaying in a European country that is not a member of the EU.
They live in England.

[bednobs]

so why didn't they say "no we aren't" when the person said you are in an EU country?

[Caran]

Sorry should have said you are FROM a country in the EU.

[vulcan42]

A couple of years ago I found an item I wanted in America. Contacted the company and was told they couldn't despatch as I was in the EU, they did say if I had relations in America they could sell it to them and they could then send to me. I e mailed saying I didn't have relations there and could they tell me what regulations applied that stopped them from supplying to the EU but they never replied.

[BlackadderV]

There aren't many counties in Europe which are not in the EU now.

Norway, Iceland,Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Turkey and the former republics of the USSR.

[Caran]

Sorry been away playing scrabble, I won incidentally!! I can't remember where they went to.

[237SJ]

Are you sure they were in a non eu country? And it wouldn`t make any difference where they were from. It would have been their boarding passes that they showed and not their passports. If they were in the EU and flying to an EU country (the UK), then duty free wouldn`t be duty free. There is no restriction on buying duty free in a non EU country and flying to the EU (UK) - I do it all the time.

[Caran]

They were prevented from buying alcohol because they lived in an EU country.

[237SJ]

Which makes me think they were in an EU country because you can`t sell duty free within the EU

[BlackadderV]

If they weren't in any of the countries I listed above (I forgot Switzerland) then they were in an EU country. There are 28 of them.