Under the current restrictions according to the Communicable Diseases Act, restaurants and bars must stop selling alcoholic beverages at 10 pm. The only exception is North Savo in eastern Finland, where drinking can continue until midnight.
Since the beginning of October, there have been only 10 cases in Finland in which restaurants or bars have been caught selling alcoholic beverages after the legal drinking time.
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Yle asked all the Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVIs) about violations of restaurant alcohol sales in their territories.
The highest number of abuses have been recorded in two AVI districts: Southwest Finland, Western and Inland Finland, since 1 October.
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In southwest Finland, the same alcohol licence holder was behind all three offenses. According to the Southwest Finland AVI, in one of these cases, the company was under the impression that the opening time restrictions did not apply to places whose operations are not primarily focused on beverage sales.
Holidays are a risk factor
According to Kristian Dahl, head of the business control unit of the Western and Central Finland AVI, decisions about violations of the Communicable Diseases Act are mostly based on risk assessments. For instance, holiday periods are a risk factor as more people visit restaurants.
"We also do general supervision. We take into account tips from the public and other authorities. Of course, when we go to restaurants, we also check for possible violations of the Alcohol Act, such as whether there are minors or too many intoxicated people," he told Yle.
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The primary sanction for restaurants that violate sales hours is the temporary closure. An establishment that flagrantly violates the time limit may be shuttered for up to two weeks. However, this has rarely been imposed.
The most recent such case was on 12 February when the Southern Finland AVI received a report of a restaurant in the southeastern city of Kotka that was still open an hour and a half past the 10 pm deadline.
In late October, a bar in Joutsa, south of Jyväskylä, was likewise closed for two weeks.