Bit of a legal question here. I was ordering drinks at a hotel bar the other day and the price I was given for one round of drinks was substantially different from the other because a D4H offer finished at 11pm, now I complained that we weren't informed about this offer and the bill was adjusted, but it got me thinking, if there are no prices shown anywhere at the bar, when is an actual contract of sale formed when ordering drinks? Is the bill given to you not simply an offer if that is the first mention of price?
Legal question - When is a contract formed when ordering drinks?
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Soldato
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I think it's time-critical. I was at a nightclub recently where posters on the walls said "doubles + mixer for £4 until midnight". Obv it goes up after midnight.
A contract is formed when an offer is made (you saying I'll give you £5 for those drinks or them saying give me £5 for those drinks) The other party accepts the offer and there is some 'consideration'.. in this case, money, handed over..
What you are describing is 'invitation to treat.' It forms no basis of a contract.. very similar to you going into Curry's and they have put a price of £10 on a £10k TV.. they are not obliged to sell it at that price as it is not an offer, the offer is made when you say, I'll give you £10 for that tv... and they say NO!
Doesn't matter what posters are on the wall or what time it is... it is all 'invitation to treat,' the offer is made when you offer to pay a certain price for the drinks and they are quite within their rights to turn down that offer. In a situation such as a public house, the law would hold that it would be a fair assumption that you should know how much the drinks were about to cost before you ordered them. That cost will be based on full retail price as the adverts do not constitute an offer.
By the same respect, you could have refused to accept the drinks as at that point no consideration had been made.
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Soldato
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Contract law might as well go out the window when it comes to buying alcohol because it also states no contract will be binding if one of the parties was not of sound mind at the time (including intoxication).
Ergo a large proportion of drink sales aren't legally binding anyway.
Except that places shouldn't be serving anyone who's drunk, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Whats the legal limit for too drunk to consent/enter a contract?
Soldato
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Looking at wiki it says:
Going by that I'd say that the contract has been formed once the drinks have been poured, because at that point the bar has "incurred a detriment" in the form of having to otherwise pour away the drinks.
I'm not talking about an invitation to treat, there were no posters or offers published. I'm talking about a situation where I order and then the drinks are poured and then the staff asks for x amount. I don't see how it can be assumed that one knows the price as the bar could abuse the law and say £1,000 please for that vodka and coke and then try to accuse someone of making off without payment when they refuse to pay that amount.
Man of Honour
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I don't know about English law but in Scottish law the bar is very high indeed, I'm not sure there has actually been a successful case to set aside a contract due to intoxication from alcohol - please use your own jokes about Scottish stereotypes at this point. Involuntary intoxication or intoxication from sources other than alcohol might render different results regarding contracts.
So what happens (theoretical example) if you order some drinks, the barman pours, and then you decide the price is much too high and refuse to purchase. The barman can hardly pour your pint back into the barrel. Do bars/pubs have a margin for loss in this event? I guess beer is probably fairly cheap to throw away, but imagine ordering 10 shots of whiskey and then claiming the price is too high.
I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect someone buying something (in this case a round of drinks) to make themselves aware of how much the cost is before they order.
I guess in OPs case it could be a bit of a grey area if they asked how much the drinks were during the offer period, were told the offer price (but the offer was never mentioned), then for the second round expected the price to be the same. Maybe he should have checked the price again, but imo it would be a reasonable assumption that it would be the same if the offer was never mentioned/advertised - clearly the bar felt the same way as he said the bill was adjusted
That's pretty much what happened, I was given a bill originally which said 1x D4H Asbolute Vodka £7.50, and then later on I was given a more expensive bill where 2 singles were put on it instead and was told it was an offer that only ran until 11pm. I think it's reasonable for prices and offers to be made clear, if you go to even to the cheapest pubs like Wetherspoons the offers and prices are clearly visible. Customers should not have to ask the price of every drink before ordering because of offers changing on a whim, it would slow down the entire bar massively.
Please don't troll, the prices were not available.
Oh trust me they were incompetent. I was actually told by one member of staff when I asked about the price difference when I was served at 2.30am the previous night that his colleague had charged me incorrectly and that it should have been D4H and he went to reception to refund my room charge, only later the next day to be told by the manager that the D4H offer ends at 11pm.
