New legal notice prohibits sale of alcohol in bottles

Bars, restaurants, kiosks and street hawkers who sell alcohol for outside consumption have been stopped from serving it in glass bottles, a new legal notice decrees.

The amendment to the Activities Requiring Permit by Local Council rules now mandates that any alcohol served in an outside area by commercial establishments, must be served in a “bio-degradable material or cardboard cup.” The rule makes no mention of ‘glass containers’, which means alcohol might still be served in normal glass tumblers.

The rules are part of the Small Business parliamentary secretariat’s plans to curb the sale of alcohol by confectioneries, which in recent past have doubled up as ‘bottle shops’, or makeshift bars much to the chagrin of club owners in the Paceville entertainment district.

The Trading Licences Act already bars the sale of alcohol between 9pm and 4am from establishments unless they are licensed clubs, wedding halls, or catering outlets licensed by the tourism authority. The sale of alcohol by street hawkers is prohibited at all times unless they are covered by a local council permit, which grants permission for special occasions, feasts, and other events.

The Chamber of SMEs (GRTU) has come out against the revised law banning the sale of alcohol from confectioneries after 9pm. It says the law, which it called “retrograde”, creates unfair commercial disadvantages for confectioneries. The Parliamentary Secretary for small business Jason Azzopardi defended the law, saying the GRTU was involved in negotiations on the regulations concerning bottle shops.

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has written to the government urging it to put its foot down and declare that the ban on confectioneries selling alcohol after 9pm does not change.

The MHRA said it wants the ban on so called bottle shops – confectioneries on the margins of entertainment which sell alcohol in the evening – to be immediately enforced, “particularly in areas of entertainment where the law was being broken in the most open and defiant manner.”

The Consumers Association says the law reduces competition in the sector because other shops which normally retail alcohol at a higher price will be able to operate without any competition from confectioneries.

The St Julian’s local council in 2008 also updated rules banning ‘loitering’ with a glass bottle, by banning the drinking of alcohol on some streets, Paceville included, against a €65 fine.