You must apply for a liquor licence if:
- You want to take over or set up a catering business
- The layout will be altered from a structural engineering perspective, for example through changes to the number of toilets, the ventilation system or the floor area of your business
- The company’s legal form is changing, and consequently the extract from the Chamber of Commerce’s commercial register is also changing
You can apply for your alcohol licence online. Please bear in mind that the application process takes up to 8 weeks.
Changes
You can submit changes online.
You can notify the authorities of a change in management without needing a new licence. The designated manager may therefore start working as a manager in your hospitality business immediately after you have received confirmation of receipt of your notification from the local authority. You should keep the confirmation of receipt with your alcohol licence.
Your licence will then consist of two parts: the licence itself and, in an appendix, your notification listing all the managers working in your hospitality business. Registered managers will only be included in the appendix once they have been assessed and found to meet the requirements of the Alcohol Act.
The Bibob Act
Your application will be assessed in accordance with the Bibob Act. This Act allows the local authority to refuse a licence if there are indications that there is a serious risk that the licence will be used (in part) to commit criminal offences.
In principle, this does not apply to a sports club canteen or a community centre (semi-commercial organisation). To assess compliance with the Bibob Act, please complete a separate application form. Whilst completing the application form online, you will find a link to the mandatory Bibob questionnaire for licences. On the BIBO page You will also find a detailed explanation of the Bibob Act.
Based on the answers you have provided and the supporting documents you have submitted, the local authority may ask you further questions (Section 4:5 of the General Administrative Law Act). If, after these additional questions have been asked, the application is still incomplete, it will be rejected. You should therefore provide as much information as possible, as clearly as possible, from the outset.
If you have any questions about the information you need to provide, please contact the Licensing Unit on 14 055.
- All officers must be at least 21 years old (at least two people for a club).
- All managers hold a Social Hygiene certificate from the Hospitality Industry Professional Competence Foundation (SVH).
- All managers meet the ethical standards.
- The premises must meet a number of layout requirements, for example regarding ventilation and toilets. For a off-licence, the only requirement is a floor area of 15 m². If a off-licence is part of a supermarket, a so-called ‘connecting area’ (for an explanation, see Definitions and Explanatory Notes) must be provided.
- You are registered as a business owner with the Chamber of Commerce.
- As an association or foundation, you have a set of articles of association in which you undertake to comply with the so-called quasi-commercial regulations. For example, a foundation or association is not permitted to let catering premises to third parties.
- This is to prevent unfair competition with the mainstream hospitality sector. Your business will be inspected in this regard before an alcohol licence is issued.
Ethical requirements
- Article 8(1)(c) of the Alcohol Act states that, as a manager, you must not be under guardianship. The article also states that you must not have been deprived of parental authority or guardianship. This means that the law no longer considers a person fit to act as a parent or guardian. The legislator considers this so serious that such a person cannot be deemed suitable to work as a manager in the hospitality industry either.
- Article 8(1b) states that you must not have a history of misconduct. In the past, you had to apply to the mayor for a certificate of good conduct. Nowadays, you must have a certificate of good conduct (VOG) to meet this requirement. The local authority issues the certificate after requesting information from the Judicial Information Service. If the investigation reveals that there are no known criminal offences against the applicant, a VOG will be issued. If criminal offences are found to have been committed, a special committee (the Central Body for Certificates of Good Conduct) will assess whether these offences are relevant to the purpose for which the certificate has been requested.
- The age requirement of 21 years is set out in Article 8(1)(c). It is no longer possible to obtain an exemption from this age requirement. The rationale behind this age limit is that, as a supervisor, you must be able to exercise a degree of authority where necessary.
- Article 8(2) refers to the Alcohol Decree. This sets out further moral requirements for managers. For example, the manager or administrator must not have been irrevocably sentenced to a prison term of more than six months in the past five years.
- Over the last 5 years, you may have been sentenced to an unconditional fine of 500 euros on no more than one occasion for certain offences. These include offences under the Opium Act (drug trafficking), the Alcohol Act, the Road Traffic Act (driving under the influence) and the Gambling Act (illegal gambling).
- In principle, individuals who have worked as managers in a hospitality business that has been closed for more than a month by order of the mayor are also no longer permitted to work as managers.
Wear point
A premises fitted with a lockable entrance, forming part of or coinciding with an establishment in which you carry on the business of selling alcoholic beverages, and intended, in any event, for the supply of spirits for consumption elsewhere.
Nering space
Space within a building used for retail trade, self-service wholesale trade or one of the following activities:
- the commercial sale of goods to private individuals (public auction)
- the provision of services on a commercial basis
- the commercial letting of goods
- the commercial purchase of goods in public.
A common retail outlet is the supermarket.
Connection point
A part of the premises where you carry on the off-licence business, which is used as a passageway between a trading area and a retail area. You may not carry out retail trade in this space. Nor may self-service wholesale trade or any other activities listed under ‘commercial premises’ take place there.
Walking distance
The shortest distance within the connecting area between the entrance door to the wear area and the door to the storage area. The aim is to ensure that you can walk at a distance of at least 0.30 m from structural elements. The door frame is considered a structural element in this context.