Do you need a liquor licence?

Liquor is often sold or available at events or venues either as the main attraction, or as a gratuitous addition to the venue’s operations or the events happening.

A liquor licence or permit allows people to sell, control or possess liquor as part of a business or event. A liquor licence is generally required if liquor is sold directly or indirectly to people.

The information provided below is intended as a guide, and you should always seek external legal or specialist licensing advice if you are unsure or have specific questions.

When is a licence needed?

In most cases, a liquor licence or permit is required supply liquor. But, where the supply of liquor is gratuitous, you may not need a licence.

Gratuitous supply is when liquor is provided free of charge and with no requirement to give or exchange something in return. This includes money, goods, services or any future agreement that there will be an exchange.

Where someone has paid for liquor indirectly, such as part of a package or ticket to an event, a liquor licence is still required.

Examples include:
- An art exhibition where a glass of wine is provided on entry. The exhibition is available to the public, with no entry fee. If there are paintings or items available to purchase, there is no obligation to purchase anything.
- A private person giving out liquor in their home to friends while they host a party.
- A company providing after work drinks to staff. All staff are welcome and liquor is provided for free.
- A display home opening provides a glass of champagne when people enter.
- A school or charity fundraiser where a glass of wine is provided free of charge at the door and no other purchase is required for example; tickets to the event or a donation on entry.
- A shoe shop invites regular shoppers to a showing of a new range and provides wine for free. Products are not available or can be pre-purchased but there is no expectation to purchase anything.
- A private function, such as birthday parties, weddings or christenings, held at a town hall where alcohol is free or BYO only.
Examples include:
- Giving a free glass of wine at an exhibition that is only available to members who pay a subscription, or have bought a ticket.
- Events, such as exhibitions, awards nights and balls where alcohol is included in the ticket price or at the bar for purchase.
- Galleries, shops and companies who offer liquor in return for purchasing a good or service.
- A company that has a work fridge with liquor in it and an honesty box for payment.
- A free entry exhibition or event that has a bar where people can buy liquor.
- A caterer being hired for a private event to supply food and liquor.
- Selling bottles of liquor online via a website.
- Having people bring their own liquor to your location where you then mix and/or serve alcohol to them.
Some locations require a liquor licence, regardless of what type of event you may be having. Please see Locations that always require a liquor licence.
The following businesses are exempt from holding a liquor licence if they meet specific requirements.
- Bed and breakfast
- Florists or gift maker business
- Hair dressers
- Butchers
- Cruise ships
- Hospitals
- Residential care services and retirement villages.
The specific requirements that must be met by the above businesses in order to exempted from holding a liquor licence are detailed at our page on minor business exemptions.
If you are running a raffle, the requirement for a liquor licence depends on how the raffle is being run.
Where the raffle has only one prize, which contains alcohol, and everyone who buys a ticket has an equal chance to win the prize, a liquor licence is not required.
Where the raffle has multiple prizes, of which only a few have alcohol, and everyone who buys a ticket has an equal chance to win a prize, with or without alcohol, a liquor licence is not required.
If the raffle is conducted, where everyone receives a prize with alcohol included, a liquor licence is required.
If you won liquor as a prize at the venue, taking the liquor with you is considered supplying packaged liquor.
A licence or permit is issued to a specific person or entity. This means you cannot use someone else’s liquor licence or permit.
You also cannot share a licence or permit between multiple people or entities.
If there is a licence or permit at your premises, check the 'licensee' section at the top of the licence. If it is not in your name, you cannot use it. This includes if you are transferring the licence or permit into your name.
You risk fines of more than $11,000 for supplying liquor without having your own liquor licence.
You also cannot share a licensed area.

Locations that always require a liquor licence

If the premises hired for an event is unlicensed and falls in one of the below categories, a licence is always needed:

A premises where meals are usually served to the public for consumption on the premises. For example, unlicensed restaurants or cafes
A premises occupied by a club, such as local sporting, social club or RSL
A premises where light refreshments and non-intoxicating drinks are sold to the public for consumption on the premises

Town halls with commercial kitchens do not fall into this category, as the premises is not ‘ordinarily’ used to serve food to the public.

Premises that cannot be licensed

Under liquor legislation certain premises cannot be licensed as they are considered a high risk or inappropriate to supply liquor. Primarily these venues may encourage drink driving or expose minors to liquor.

These include:

Drive-in cinemas
Petrol stations
Businesses located at or within highway service stations
Convenience stores
Locations that primarily used by people under the age of 18.

Where we are concerned that you may be trying to licence such a venue, we will ask you for more information. This will include photos, information about all your products for sale and a detailed description of your business activities.

BYO

BYO permits give venues that don’t want to supply liquor on their premises the option to allow people bring their own liquor to consume on the premises. This applies specifically to restaurants, cafes, clubs and party buses for on-going businesses.

For one-off events, you do not require a permit to allow BYO liquor unless your event is happening at a location that always requires a liquor licence.

If this is the case you will need to apply for a temporary liquor licence.

If you already hold a liquor licence and your venue’s main activity is preparing and serving meals, such as a restaurant or a café, you do not need an additional licence or permit to allow people to BYO.

What licence do I need?

If you require a licence for your event or venue, the next decision you need to make is, what licence or permit do you need?

The category of licence or permit you need will change based on the nature of your event or business.

Please note: This is general advice and may not cover every situation. Where your situation is not addressed in the below or you require more specific guidance, you should seek external legal or specialist licensing advice.

Licences for one-off events or short seasons

If you are holding a one-off event or having a short season of events, you will need either a temporary limited licence or major event licence.

A temporary limited licence allows people to hold one off events where liquor is being supplied, such as balls, small festivals, markets, gallery exhibitions and so on.
For events that go over a few days or weeks, you may also apply for a temporary limited licence. This includes sporting seasons, pop-up events, markets and festivals, wine drives and other similar events.
This also applies to existing licensees who want to have a one off event to trade later into the night or add additional areas temporarily.
A temporary limited licence only permits the supply of liquor at the event, and does not override your need for council permission to hold any events.
A major event is defined as one where:
- A large crowd will be in attendance (over 5000 people)
- Involves significant coordination from Victoria Police, local council, public transport or emergency services.
Some well known major events are Good Food and Wine Show, Royal Melbourne Show, the Grand Prix and Spring Carnival. Large music events and concerts are also usually major events.
A major event licence only permits the supply of liquor at the event, and does not override your need for council permission to hold any events.
If you want to cater private or public events and supply liquor, you will need a liquor licence.
If you are catering to private events, you may want to consider applying for a renewable limited licence with catering conditions. These conditions permit you to supply liquor at private functions within Victoria only and no later than 1am.
A private event is considered one that is invite only, and not available to the public. An event being ticketed does not make it a private event.
If you want to cater to public events, including ticketed events, you will require a temporary limited licence or major event licence for each event and location.

Licences and permits for on-going businesses

The below is relevant if you have an on-going business or an extended pop-up.

Where you have a venue where people can come in and have a drink, there are a few different options.
- A general licence allows you to have patrons come into your venue and have a drink. People can also buy packaged liquor for takeaway from your venue. General licences are attractive to pubs, restaurants, wine bars and providores.
- An on-premises licence allows patrons to come into your venue and have a drink. You may or may not sell food or meals. People cannot take packaged liquor away from your venue. On premises licences are ideal for bars, function centres, night clubs, live-music venues and restaurants.
- A restaurant and cafe licence allows patrons to come into your restaurant or cafe and have a drink with a meal. The preparation and serving of meals must be your main activity at all times your venue is open. You cannot close the kitchen and turn into a bar – if you want to do this, you should consider an on-premises or general licence.
- If you are a restaurant, cafe or club that doesn’t supply liquor, but want to allow people to BYO, you will need a BYO permit.
Where you have a physical shop to sell packaged liquor, such as a bottle shop, supermarket, providore or delicatessen you may want to consider the following licences:
- A packaged liquor licence allows you to sell packaged liquor. It is designed for solely the supply of packaged liquor, such as bottle shops, gift shops, butchers, supermarkets and other similar venues. Your patrons cannot consume liquor on site.
- A general licence may be appropriate to sell packaged liquor if you also sell liquor on the premises to drink. For example, a providore or delicatessen may allow a person to buy a bottle of wine and some sandwiches to eat and drink at the shop. The sale of packaged liquor cannot be the whole of your business activity.
Tastings are usually when suppliers give 15mL or 30mL tastings of their product. This can occur as part of larger events, but also private events, parties or at bottle shops and supermarkets. The kind of licence you need to allow tastings depends on how you are offering liquor.
- Businesses that hold a producer’s licence that has promotional event conditions endorsed on the their licence can attend markets and events that allow tastings with their producer’s licence.
- To attend markets and events, or run smaller tasting events available to the public, even if they are run by you, you will require a temporary limited licence to attend.
- If you run private events that are invite only and not available to the public, you may be able to run tasting events with a renewable limited licence with catering conditions.
- A bottle shop with a packaged liquor licence can allow free tastings of products on site. However, you cannot charge or expect patrons to buy liquor in exchange for a tasting. It must be a free tasting.
- If you have a shop that charges for tastings of liquor and sells packaged liquor, you will likely require a general licence .
Selling liquor online includes via a website, email, phone, fax and other social media platforms. If you do not have a physical shop, you may want to consider one the following licences:
- A temporary limited licence will allow you to supply a limited amount of liquor online for a short period of time. This is appropriate if you are just wanting to clear stock after closing down or have acquired liquor as a one off product.
- A remote seller’s licence will allow you to supply liquor online on an on-going basis. You may have multiple locations where you pick and pack, and can permit click and collect of liquor.
- If you have a physical shop front you may want to consider a general licence or a packaged liquor licence .
Clubs come in all sizes and functions, from social events, local sporting clubs, gaming venues, RSLs and large community clubs.
- A full club licence is good for larger clubs and gaming venues. The licence allows clubs to supply liquor to members of the club and their guests to drink on site, as well at private functions held at the venue. Members of the club are also allowed to take packaged liquor away from the venue. For sporting clubs, the licence can permit the supply of liquor at sporting matches.
- A restricted club licence is good for smaller community and sporting clubs. It allows clubs to supply liquor to their members and their guests, as well as at private functions and sporting matches.
- A renewable limited licence for a club is good for small sporting and social clubs. It requires the club to have limited seasons, days or hours of trade. It permits the club to supply liquor to its members and their guests, as well as at private functions and sporting games.
People can BYO liquor to different premises without a permit with some exceptions. If the premises is an unlicensed restaurant, cafe, occupied by a club or provides light refreshments and non-alcohol beverages you will need a licence or permit.
- A BYO permit will allow people to bring their own liquor to your premises during your trading hours. A BYO permit can only be held by a restaurant, cafe, club or party bus (if applicable).
- If you are hiring out one of the above venues for a one-off event, you will need a temporary limited licence, even if you are only permitting BYO at your event.
- If you already hold a liquor licence and your venue’s main activity is preparing and serving meals, such as a restaurant or a café, you do not need an additional licence or permit to allow people to BYO.
The term wholesale can mean a lot of different things. LCV uses the term wholesale to mean supplying liquor only to other businesses with liquor licences. To sell liquor, you will need a licence, but the type of licence will change based on who you want to supply liquor to.
- To supply liquor to only other businesses with liquor licences or to export overseas, a pre-retail licence will suit your needs.
- A remote seller’s licence will allow you to supply liquor wholesale to other licensees, as well as directly to the public. You cannot supply liquor face to face with this licence.
- If you want to supply liquor wholesale to other licensees, but also directly to the public both online and in person, you may want to consider a packaged liquor licence.
Breweries, distilleries and wineries often produce their own beer, wine, spirits, brandy, mead or sake for supply. You may want to consider one of the following licences:
- A producer’s licence allows people who produce their own liquor or those that are financially responsible for making the liquor, to supply liquor. You must have a physical premises to obtain a producer’s licence. This licence will also allow you to attend markets and smaller beer and wine festivals.
- If you do not have physical premises, or only sell liquor online, you will need a remote seller’s licence. Your licensed premises will be where you pick and pack liquor for delivery. To attend markets with your product, you will need to also apply for a temporary limited licence .
- If you only want to supply liquor to other businesses that hold a licence, you should consider a pre-retail licence. This licence allows you to supply liquor online or in person at any location, based on you and your businesses needs. This licence does not allow the supply of liquor direct to the public.
If you are a party bus, train, boat or water vessels that wants to supply liquor to patrons on your vehicle or vessel, you will need a renewable limited licence. The licensed premises will be where your vehicle or vessel is housed, such as a garage, shed or berth.
- If you are a boat, water vessel or train that wants to allow BYO, you do not require a liquor licence.
- If you are a cruise ship and if you only supply liquor on the ship to registered passengers of the ship or the crew members, you may be exempt from holding a licence.
- If you are a party bus that wants to allow BYO liquor and you operate in a designated area between 8pm and 5am, you require a BYO permit. This includes driving through the designated area, even if you do not stop. Otherwise, you do not require a BYO permit.
If you already have a licence but you want to do something else, you might want to consider the following:
- If you’re having a one off event when you want to trade later, or add an additional area, you can apply for a temporary limited licence. You cannot override existing conditions such as crowd controllers, CCTV or other special conditions with a temporary limited licence.
- If you would like to change a condition on your licence, permanently trade later, add additional patrons or space to your licensed area, you will need to vary your liquor licence .
- If you would like to reduce your trading hours, patron capacity or licensed area, further information can be found at options for reducing your renewal fee .
- If your licence category does not suit your business needs anymore, you can consider a change of licence category
- If you are selling or buying a business with a liquor licence, you will need to transfer your licence .
- If you are closing down your business you may want to consider surrendering your licence so that you are no longer liable for liquor being sold there.

Next Steps

Once you’ve decided on the right licence type for you, you will need to lodge the right application, we have a page to assist you in completing your liquor licence application.

Business & the workplace

Updated 27 November 2024