Sale of all types of small bottles permitted from the 28th

Original view

Starting from the 28th, the sale of all types of "small glasses" of alcohol at restaurants will be permitted.

The amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Liquor License Act, which was approved at the recent Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Han Deok-soo and held by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, will take effect on the 28th. The amendment exempts the act of dividing liquor into empty containers such as glasses and selling it from being grounds for license cancellation. This practice, known as 'jan-sul' (serving small glasses), is considered a simple processing or manipulation of liquor and is recognized as an exception to license cancellation.

Although cases where the sale of leftover alcohol directly led to license cancellation were rare according to the National Tax Service's basic guidelines interpretation, there had been confusion due to differing standards depending on the type of alcohol when selling leftover drinks. Mixing carbonation or other additives into alcoholic beverages or pouring beer into empty containers was considered an exception of simple processing or manipulation, making the sale of leftover cocktails and draft beer generally permissible. However, it was not explicitly stated that selling whiskey, soju, makgeolli, or sake in a glass was an exception to the rule of arbitrary processing or manipulation. As a result, if such beverages like soju or makgeolli were sold in glasses and caught, there was a possibility that alcohol sales could be prohibited.

Now that the legal basis is clear, the sale of all types of small liquor bottles has been permitted. The revision also includes provisions allowing comprehensive liquor wholesalers to supply non-alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages produced and sold by liquor manufacturers to restaurants alongside alcoholic beverages. Currently, comprehensive liquor wholesalers can only distribute alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of 1% or higher, but in the future, they will be able to distribute non-alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages with low or no alcohol content. This means that liquor wholesalers will now be able to supply 'non-alcoholic' beer to restaurants.

However, with the new situation allowing the sale of 'soju small pours,' netizens responded that it is "a suitable policy for people who are not good at drinking or find bottled alcohol burdensome," but some expressed concerns such as "it seems difficult to trust hygiene management, like collecting and selling leftover drinks from customers," and "the situations that could arise when problems occur should also be clarified."