Terms of service

About these terms

These terms apply when you buy from O.W. Loeb & Co Limited as a private customer through our online shop. Please read them together with our Delivery & In-Bond Transfers and Returns & Refunds policies.

Trade purchases and any separately agreed storage, broking or en primeur service are subject to the terms supplied for that service before you commit. Buying wine in bond does not, by itself, make you a trade customer.

Nothing in these terms limits your statutory rights.

Age and eligibility

You must be at least 18 to buy alcohol from us. The person receiving the wine must also be at least 18. We may request evidence of age and may decline an order or delivery if age cannot be verified or if we reasonably believe that the purchase is being made unlawfully for someone under 18.

Your wine

Each listing identifies the wine, vintage, bottle size and quantity supplied. Please check these details and your chosen duty status before ordering.

Where we use an illustrative photograph or a holding illustration, we identify it as such. The image does not alter the wine, vintage or format you are buying. We will not substitute a different wine, vintage or bottle size without your agreement.

Older wines may have age-related variation in labels, capsules, fill levels and packaging. We disclose material condition information known to us. If condition is particularly important to your purchase, please ask about the availability of a bottle photograph or condition report before ordering. These provisions do not exclude your rights if wine is faulty or not as described.

Prices, duty and VAT

Duty-paid prices include UK Alcohol Duty and VAT. Delivery charges are shown before you pay.

In-bond prices exclude Alcohol Duty and VAT on the wine. In-bond wine must remain within an eligible bonded arrangement and is not available for ordinary home delivery at that price. Duty, VAT and any applicable delivery charges become payable if you later arrange release for UK consumption, at the rates applying at that time.

Any charges payable to us for the current order will be displayed or agreed before you commit. Your receiving warehouse may charge separately for receipt, storage or other services under your agreement with it.

If we discover a pricing or description error before accepting your order, we will explain it and give you the choice of proceeding on the corrected basis or cancelling for a full refund. We will not increase the agreed price of an accepted order without your agreement, except for future taxes or charges expressly left to be calculated later under an agreed in-bond arrangement.

Ordering and acceptance

Your order is an offer to buy. Our automatic order acknowledgement confirms receipt, not acceptance. We accept your order when we send a separate acceptance confirmation or a despatch confirmation, whichever comes first.

Payment is collected at checkout. Collecting payment does not, by itself, constitute acceptance. If we cannot accept your order, we will explain why and promptly refund the amount collected for the part we cannot supply, together with any related delivery charge that is no longer payable.

Please contact us promptly if you notice an error in your order. Changes depend on the stage reached, but this does not affect your cancellation rights.

Delivery, ownership and responsibility

Our Delivery & In-Bond Transfers policy explains delivery options and receiving requirements. We will agree any special timescale with you before accepting the order. Unless another period has been agreed, delivery will take place without undue delay and within 30 days of acceptance.

Ownership passes once we have accepted your order, received full payment and identified the wine to your order. Until all three have happened, payment alone does not establish ownership of particular bottles.

We remain responsible for loss or damage until you, or a person you nominate, physically receives the wine. For an agreed in-bond transfer, this includes receipt by the nominated receiving warehouse on your behalf. If you independently appoint a carrier that we have not offered, the statutory exception for that arrangement may apply. Ownership and responsibility for transit are distinct.

If delivery is delayed, we will tell you and discuss the next steps. Where the law allows you to end the contract because we have failed to deliver, you may do so and receive the refund to which you are entitled. Events outside our control do not remove those rights.

Our responsibility to you

We are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage caused by our breach of these terms or our failure to use reasonable care and skill. We do not exclude liability for fraud, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.

These consumer terms do not provide compensation for business losses arising from a trade use of the wine. This does not affect any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

Questions, complaints and governing law

Please write to orders@owloeb.com with your order number and the outcome you would like. We aim to acknowledge complaints within two working days and provide a substantive response within ten working days. If more time is needed, we will explain why and keep you informed.

If we cannot resolve a complaint, our final response will explain any alternative dispute-resolution arrangement available to you and whether we will participate. This does not prevent you from using the courts.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the United Kingdom, you retain the benefit of mandatory consumer protections and any right to bring proceedings in your home jurisdiction.

The terms agreed when we accept your order apply to that order. Later website changes do not retrospectively remove your rights.