Retailer Abdul Majid is raising judicial review proceedings in the Court of Session against Circularity Scotland Limited (CSL), which was appointed by the Scottish Government to administer Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.
Majid is challenging the legality of the retailer handling fees that Circularity Scotland are seeking to impose on retailers.
He is concerned that that the retailer handling fee levels will not cover his costs following the introduction of the DRS and will be detrimental to his business both in the short and long term thereby threatening the viability of his store which provides key services and groceries to his local community in Bellshill.
The action has been welcomed by the Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), which has also been trying to get Circularity Scotland to review the Retailer Handling Fee.
Chief Executive, Dr Pete Cheema, said: “SGF supports the aims of the judicial review proceedings which convenience retailer Abdul Majid MBE has brought, on his own behalf, against Circularity Scotland Limited. It is essential that DRS remains cost neutral to Return Point Operators and does not leave them with an additional cost burden or put them out of business.”
“As a trade body, it is important that we once again highlight that thousands of local convenience stores are at risk due to insufficient funding through an inadequate and potentially illegal retailer handling fee structure. They are faced with the choice of taking on a significant financial burden to set up reverse vending machines, with no means of properly recovering this cost through the scheme, or being forced out the scheme altogether and risk losing all their footfall to large businesses.”
He added: “We would encourage the Scottish Government to intervene and ensure that CSL are only adhering to what the regulations permit them to and not engage in trying to impose a handling fee that legally they are not allowed to do.”
