<P> Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd (1953) EWCA Civ 6 is a famous English contract law decision on the nature of an offer . The Court held that the display of a product in a store with a price attached is not sufficient to be considered an offer, but rather is an invitation to treat . </P> <P> Boots Cash Chemists had just instituted a new way for its customers to buy certain medicines . Shoppers could now pick drugs off the shelves in the chemist and then pay for them at the till . Before then, all medicines were stored behind a counter mea a shop employee would get what was requested . The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain objected and argued that under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1933, that was an unlawful practice . Under s 18 (1), a pharmacist needed to supervise at the point where "the sale is effected" when the product was one listed on the 1933 Act's schedule of poisons . The Society argued that displays of goods were an "offer" and when a shopper selected and put the drugs into their shopping basket, that was an "acceptance", the point when the "sale is effected"; as no pharmacist had supervised the transaction at this point, Boots was in breach of the Act . Boots argued that the sale was effected only at the till . </P> <P> Both the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court and the Court of Appeal sided with Boots . They held that the display of goods was not an offer . Rather, by placing the goods into the basket, it was the customer that made the offer to buy the goods . This offer could be either accepted or rejected by the pharmacist at the cash desk . The moment of the completion of contract was at the cash desk, in the presence of the supervising pharmacist . Therefore, there was no violation of the Act . </P> <P> Somervell LJ said, </P>

Pharmaceutical society of great britain v boots chemists