New research shows Australians want stronger rules on online sale and home delivery, ads

The way alcohol is sold and promoted in Australia has changed dramatically. Once limited to bottle shops and pubs, alcohol is now just a click away: advertised on our phones and delivered to our doors, sometimes within half an hour.

A new national survey by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), The University of Queensland, and The George Institute for Global Health highlights both the scale of this shift and Australians’ growing concern about it.

Alcohol at our fingertips

The survey of more than 2,000 Australians found that over a third of people who had consumed alcohol in the past year had it delivered to their home. Of these, almost 40% received alcohol within two hours of ordering.

The integration of alcohol into everyday delivery apps has blurred the lines further. A quarter of participants reported receiving alcohol through food delivery services like Uber Eats or Menulog. More than half of these app users saw alcohol ads, with two thirds expressing concerns about being targeted.

For people already experiencing alcohol harms, the risks are magnified. More than half of participants likely experiencing alcohol dependency reported using rapid delivery services, compared to just a quarter of those at low risk. They were also far more likely to buy alcohol after clicking through an online advertisement.

Advertising that closes the gap between browsing and buying

Digital platforms have collapsed the traditional gap between seeing an advertisement and making a purchase. One in three people who had alcohol delivered said they bought it directly after clicking an online ad. Among those likely experiencing alcohol dependence, the figure jumped to over 50%.

The personalisation of advertising, made possible by companies’ access to user data, increases these risks. Targeted ads can trigger impulse purchases and make it harder for people to avoid alcohol promotion altogether.

What Australians want to see changed

Despite the industry’s rapid growth in digital marketing and delivery, regulation has not kept pace. Yet the research shows there is strong community appetite for reform:

• 78% support banning push notifications that encourage alcohol purchases.

• 77% oppose companies using people’s personal data to target them with alcohol ads, with support rising to 82% when it comes to children’s data.

• 80% support requiring health warnings on alcohol retail websites, and 78% support warnings on online alcohol ads.

• 79% back strong penalties for companies that advertise to people who have opted out.

  
  

Only a small minority (between 4% and 7%) oppose these measures.

A call for regulation to catch up

The findings come as policymakers face increasing pressure to update laws that were designed for brick-and-mortar sales. FARE and public health experts have proposed common-sense measures, such as introducing a two-hour safety pause for deliveries, restricting home delivery to between 10am and 10pm, and requiring robust age and ID checks.

Both the federal government and the South Australian Royal Commission into domestic, family and sexual violence have already identified restrictions on online alcohol sale and rapid home delivery as vital to preventing and reducing gender-based violence.

This latest research makes clear that Australians are ready for reform. As digital platforms become central to how alcohol is bought and sold, the public overwhelmingly supports stronger protections for health, privacy, and community safety.

Read the report.