Is it illegal to sell British 24hour rations marked not for resale in the UK?
I got a message from another member, telling me that what it was illegal to sell rations.
eBay.co.uk seems to have loads on there already, and why doesn't eBay ban selling of these items like some other things it does already.
Quick google seems to tally up with what I was told:
http://www.practicalairsoft.co.uk/gp-menu.asp
Very confused now.
Selling British 24 hour rations illegal in UK?
Selling British 24 hour rations illegal in UK?
Last edited by vampalan on Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Selling British 24 hour rations illegal in UK?
Quick google found this:
http://www.armycadetforce.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=18422
and see:
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FDF60DD0 ... _aug09.pdf
see page 4,
http://www.armycadetforce.com/forum/sho ... hp?t=18422
and see:
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FDF60DD0 ... _aug09.pdf
see page 4,
Re: Selling British 24 hour rations illegal in UK?
I can't really speak to the actual legalities in the UK (or here in the US for that matter, since IANAL), but it sounds like things in the UK are similar to over here. As for eBay, they've been asked to stop selling MREs and other rations and eBay is happy to comply - as long as they can be shown a law, not just an internal military regulation - that says they can't be sold. So far, there haven't been any civilian laws that actually ban the sale of these rations.
But what the military or other government organizations *can* do is launch an investigation into those eBay sales. In the US, they've done this at least a couple of times in the past 5 years where they track down the sellers of MREs on eBay and try to find out how those MREs were obtained. In some cases, the MREs were legitimately obtained as disaster relief supplies. If they *give* you an MRE, it becomes your property - you can eat, sell it, or turn it into a handbag - it's your choice. But sadly, it's also true that some MREs were not so legitimately obtained. In some cases, they found the MREs had "fallen off a truck" and never should have ended up on the civilian market. In those instances, the cases were referred to the military for potential prosecution of the soldiers who sold the MREs.
So as for a hard and fast rule of "you can't sell rations" - I haven't heard of one - but don't take that for legal advice. But that's just for civilians. If you're in the military (the US military at least, I can't speak for any other countries), you live under a different set of laws - the Uniform Code of Military Justice and selling MREs that were issued to you is probably very much against those laws.
But what the military or other government organizations *can* do is launch an investigation into those eBay sales. In the US, they've done this at least a couple of times in the past 5 years where they track down the sellers of MREs on eBay and try to find out how those MREs were obtained. In some cases, the MREs were legitimately obtained as disaster relief supplies. If they *give* you an MRE, it becomes your property - you can eat, sell it, or turn it into a handbag - it's your choice. But sadly, it's also true that some MREs were not so legitimately obtained. In some cases, they found the MREs had "fallen off a truck" and never should have ended up on the civilian market. In those instances, the cases were referred to the military for potential prosecution of the soldiers who sold the MREs.
So as for a hard and fast rule of "you can't sell rations" - I haven't heard of one - but don't take that for legal advice. But that's just for civilians. If you're in the military (the US military at least, I can't speak for any other countries), you live under a different set of laws - the Uniform Code of Military Justice and selling MREs that were issued to you is probably very much against those laws.
Re: Selling British 24 hour rations illegal in UK?
As far as I know they don't bother chasing up servicemen or women who sell the odd pack they have been issued, it simply isn't worth the time and effort, but there have been guys who take a whole pallet and sell them online, and those guys, quite rightly, get chased.
That said, the manufacturer also sells them directly (but at expensive prices), so actually proving that any given ration is stolen must be very difficult. Basically, so long as you don't really take the pi$$ it should be ok
That said, the manufacturer also sells them directly (but at expensive prices), so actually proving that any given ration is stolen must be very difficult. Basically, so long as you don't really take the pi$$ it should be ok