Customer guide
Food Promotion & Placement Regulations
What Scottish businesses need to know from 1 October 2026
New rules restrict certain volume-price promotions and prominent placement of specified less-healthy food and drink.
They do not affect every business. Start with the checks below to see whether you are likely to be in scope.
How does this affect me?
1Does the business have 50 or more employees?
Under 50 employees: exempt from the volume-price and location restrictions.
Continue to check the type of business.
2Is the operation mainly a restaurant, café or takeaway?
Exempt from the volume-price and location rules. Free-refill rules can still apply.
A retail operation may be in scope. Continue.
3Do you sell specified prepacked HFSS products?
The main promotion and placement restrictions will not affect those products.
Volume-price restrictions can apply. Check store size for placement rules.
4Is relevant retail floor area 2,000 sq ft / 185.8m² or more?
No in-store location restriction, but volume-price rules may still apply.
Both volume-price and location restrictions may apply.
Employee count: count the business as a whole, not just one Scottish site. The official guidance also contains specific rules for franchises and arrangements that may operate like a franchise, so symbol-group retailers should not assume that a small individual store is automatically outside scope.
What type of business are you?
Cafés, restaurants, takeaways and hotel restaurants
For these Regulations, “restaurant” is wider than a traditional sit-down restaurant. It can include cafés, coffee shops, sandwich shops, takeaways, bakery stores, hotel restaurants, pub restaurants and similar operations mainly preparing or selling food intended for immediate consumption.
Restaurants are exempt from the volume-price and location restrictions. A qualifying business can still be affected by the separate restriction on free refills of certain sugar-sweetened drinks.
A café within a larger retail operation can also be treated separately from the retail area.
Convenience, garden centre, visitor attraction, farm shop or speciality retail
Retail food sales can be in scope where the business meets the employee threshold and sells specified food. Apply the employee, product and store-size tests above.
Specialist stores: a store that only or mainly sells food from one specified category may qualify for an exemption from the location restrictions, but may still be subject to the volume-price restrictions.
If you are in scope: what changes?
Specified food must not be offered as part of a prohibited volume-price promotion, for example “2 for £X”, “3 for 2” or “buy one get one free”.
The restriction applies in store and online.
It is not a general ban on ordinary price reductions.
For stores with at least 185.8m² / 2,000 sq ft of relevant floor area, specified food cannot be placed in certain prominent locations.
These include defined areas around entrances, checkouts, designated queues and aisle ends. Equivalent online location restrictions also apply.
Which products are affected?
All three tests must be met. Categories include, among others, sugary soft drinks, crisps and savoury snacks, some breakfast cereals, confectionery, ice cream, cakes, sweet biscuits, morning goods, desserts, sweetened yoghurts, pizzas, certain potato products and some ready meals.
Not every product in one of these categories is restricted. It must also meet the Nutrient Profiling Model test.
Non-prepacked food — for example loose bakery products — is generally outside the main promotion and placement restrictions. The separate sugary-drink free-refill rule is an exception.
Quick check by trade type
| Business | What to check |
|---|---|
| Convenience retailer | 50+ employees? Check franchise/symbol arrangements. If in scope, review specified products and multibuys; check location rules if the store is 2,000 sq ft+. |
| Café / restaurant / hotel restaurant | Normally exempt from volume-price and location restrictions as a restaurant. Free-refill rules may still apply to a qualifying business. |
| Garden centre | Retail food sales can be in scope. Check employee count, products and floor area. A café area may be treated separately. |
| Visitor centre / attraction | A retail or gift shop selling prepacked food can be in scope. A restaurant or café operation may be exempt separately. |
| Farm shop | Apply the employee, product and store-size tests. Loose/non-prepacked foods are generally outside the main product restrictions. |
| Speciality retailer | A store mainly selling food from one specified category may be exempt from location rules; volume-price rules can still apply. |
What should I do before 1 October 2026?
- Confirm employee count and check whether any franchise or symbol-group arrangement affects your position.
- Identify specified prepacked products which may fall within the regulated categories.
- Establish which are classed as less healthy/HFSS under the Nutrient Profiling Model.
- Review multibuy and other volume-price offers, including online promotions.
- If the store has 2,000 sq ft or more of relevant floor area, review affected products at entrances, checkouts, designated queues and aisle ends.
- Keep a record of how you reached your scope decision and any changes you make.
Official guidance and further information
- Scottish Government implementation guidance
- Which businesses must comply?
- What food is in scope?
- Volume-price promotions
- Location promotions
- Official location diagrams
- The Regulations on legislation.gov.uk