Still In Cask and the Repeal of WOWGR

The Warehousekeepers and Owners of Warehoused Goods Regulations (WOWGR) was established in 1999. Historically, WOWGR applied to revenue traders—businesses storing casks in warehouses—and required such entities to register under specific regulatory sections. Crucially, the regulations already exempted non-revenue traders (private individuals) provided they were are not commercially trading whisky. This exemption allowed private collectors to hold a limited number of casks in their name at warehouses without needing WOWGR registration. However, businesses owning casks for commercial purposes had to comply with WOWGR’s registration requirements.

As of 3rd March 2025 the WOWGR regulations have been replaced by the simpler “warehousekeepers regulations”. These updated, simplified regulations remove the need for owners of goods in an excise warehouse to register with HMRC, which previously had been a lengthy and arduous process. This means that businesses and individuals can now freely buy and sell whisky in excise warehouses for revenue and profit. Under the updated regulations, trading goods in warehouses will revert to “standard obligations” outlined in existing statutory notices, such as Notices 196 and 197, which govern general warehouse operations. However, these notices will also require amendments to eliminate references to WOWGR’s now-defunct ownership clauses.

Due to the WOWGR regulations, Still In Cask has not allowed companies to join the platform and not permitted the selling of cask shares, only gifting. Now that the regulations have been updated we will allow companies to join the platform and allow members to sell cask shares. To facilitate this we are looking to add a secondary marketplace to the platform in the near future.

If you have any questions about the change in regulations and how this affects Still In Cask please get in touch.