Lidl convicted on appeal for selling alcohol to teenager who then killed himself on scooter

The Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Court of Appeal sentenced Lidl this Thursday to a fine of 5,000 euros for “illegal sale of alcohol to a minor”France Bleu Pays basque learned. The store was found guilty of selling alcohol to a 16-year-old boy in 2021. The teenager had a fatal scooter accident a few minutes later. The Pau public prosecutor had also requested that the conviction be posted on the front of the store, which was not accepted by the judges.

Lidl has announced that it will appeal to the Court of Cassation. In December 2023, during the first instance judgment at the Bayonne judicial court, the German multinational was fined €5,000.

The fatal accident dates back to May 8, 2021. The 16-year-old victim, Kilian, bought two bottles of vodka in the Lidl store in Urrugne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) early in the afternoon. A little later in the day, the two friends were riding a scooter in Urrugne. Kilian’s friend hit him, Kilian hit a pylon and died. The autopsy showed that the victim of the fatal accident had consumed alcohol (0.56 grams per liter of blood).

At the trial in first instance, the courts had recognised a causal link between the in-store purchase and the fatal accident, which was “a first in France”greeted Antoine Tugas, lawyer for Kilian’s mother. Tried before a juvenile court, Kilian’s friend had been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.