• A 16-year-old boy died in a road accident on May 8, 2021 after consuming alcohol with a friend.

  • His mother filed a complaint against the Lidl brand, which will be tried on November 3 for "illegal sale of alcohol to a minor".

  • The complainant expresses her desire to send “a message of prevention” in this area.

The trial will begin in a few days, on November 3, in Bayonne.

The Lidl brand is being prosecuted for "illicit sale of alcohol to a minor" following the death of a teenager in 2021 in a road accident in the Basque Country, we learned Thursday from the attorney for the victim's family.

The mother of the boy, who died at the age of 16 while he was riding a scooter, filed a complaint against the supermarket chain, saying that "if there had been no fault on Lidl, there might not have had an accident”.

The prosecution went in its direction and sent the retailer to court.

Contacted by AFP, Lidl "did not wish to comment" before the hearing.

A bottle of vodka purchased, one to two hours before the accident

On May 8, 2021, at 6.15 p.m., the teenager, “who had not drunk much” specifies his mother, died in a shock with a pylon in Urrugne near Hendaye, after being hit by a friend who was traveling also on a scooter, also alcoholic.

Tried in juvenile court, he was found guilty of manslaughter.

“One or two hours earlier,” the two boys had bought a bottle of vodka from a Lidl store in the town.

“In this file, there is alcohol.

Its sale and its absorption have a direct link with the death”, affirms the lawyer of the family, Me Antoine Tugas.

“I'm not looking for someone to be responsible for, I've done everything I can to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen to my son, but you can't lock up your children.

It's a message of prevention that I want to pass, ”insists the mother.

The complaint only targets the sale of alcoholic beverages to a minor, prohibited by law and liable to a fine of 3,750 euros.

"If the usual precautions had been taken, if we had checked the age of these minors, this sale would not have taken place", considers Me Tugas, for whom "it is good that at some point , principles are recalled”.

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  • Justice

  • Road accident

  • Minor

  • Alcohol

  • Manslaughter

  • Pays Basque

  • Bayonne

  • Aquitaine