Under current restrictions under the Communicable Diseases Act, restaurants and bars must stop selling alcoholic beverages at 10 p.m. The only exception is Northern Savonia in Eastern Finland, where drinking can continue until midnight.
Since the beginning of October, there have been only 10 cases in Finland where restaurants or bars have been caught selling alcoholic beverages after drinking legally.
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Yle asked all regional government agencies (AVIs) about violations of alcohol sales in restaurants in their territories.
The highest number of abuses has been recorded in two AVI districts: in southwestern Finland, in western and inland Finland since 1 October.
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In southwestern Finland, the same holder of an alcohol license was behind all three crimes. According to AVI of Southwest Finland, in one of these cases the company had the impression that the opening hours did not apply to places whose activities are not primarily focused on the sale of beverages.
Holidays are a risk factor
By Kristian DahlHead of the Business Control Unit of AVI in Western and Central Finland, decisions regarding violations of the Communicable Diseases Act are mainly based on risk assessments. Vacation periods, for example, are a risk factor as more and more people visit restaurants.
"We also do general inspections. We take into account tips from the public and other authorities. Of course, by visiting 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 temporary closure. An establishment which blatantly breaches the deadline may be closed for a maximum of two weeks. However, this is rarely prescribed.
The last such case was on February 12, when the AVI of Southern Finland received a notification about a restaurant in the city of Southeast Kotka, which was still open for one and a half hours by 10 pm.
At the end of October in Joutsa, south of Jyväskylä, the bar was also closed for two weeks.
Source: The Nordic Page