How to stay compliant with liquor laws
What you need to do to comply with your licence conditions and the law.
On this page
- Penalties for non-compliance
- Comply with licence conditions
- Protect minors from alcohol
- Manage intoxicated customers
- Complete required training
- Display correct signage
- Provide free drinking water
- Do not share your licence
- Tell us if your details change
- Promote alcohol responsibly
- Deliver alcohol safely
- Compliance checklists
As a licence or permit holder, you are required to comply with the conditions of your licence and the law.
These legal requirements aim to reduce alcohol-related harm, keep the community safe and ensure a fair liquor industry.
You may be personally penalised if your licensed venue or location is not compliant.
Your obligations are determined by your licence conditions and the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998.
Penalties for non-compliance
There are serious penalties for not complying with your licence, including:
- fines of more than $24,000
- jail term of up to 2 years
- cancelling your licence and disqualifying you from holding another one, including for life.
If you have a non-compliance incident, it can increase your annual licence renewal fees for 3 years.
Find out what offences can lead to a fine (infringement notice), including maximum penalties.
Read about enforcement actions and outcomes.
Comply with licence conditions
Read your liquor licence. It has important details on the conditions you must follow to stay compliant. These may be unique to your licensed venue or location.
If you do not follow all conditions, you could face serious penalties.
Get help to understand your licence conditions.
If your licence no longer suits your needs, you can apply to make changes to your licence type or conditions. You must get our permission first. Find out how to make changes to your licence.
Protect minors from alcohol
The legal drinking age in Victoria is 18 years. Anyone under 18 is considered a minor.
It is against the law to:
- supply alcohol to a minor anywhere, including at your licensed venue or location or when you deliver alcohol
- allow minors at your licensed venue unless they are with a responsible adult or in certain approved situations
- employ minors to supply alcohol (but they’re allowed to serve alcohol if it’s part of a training program we have approved).
You are responsible if alcohol is supplied to a minor at your licensed venue, even if you didn’t know about it.
You could be fined more than $24,000 for breaching these laws.
Read about the definition of a responsible adult, ID checking and other legal requirements to prevent minors from accessing alcohol.
Manage intoxicated customers
It is against the law for you or your staff to:
- supply alcohol to an intoxicated person
- permit a drunk or disorderly person to be at your venue.
You could be fined more than $24,000 for breaching these laws.
Find out how to decide if a person is intoxicated and get a checklist to help you manage intoxicated customers.
Complete required training
Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) training is legally required for anyone selling, offering or serving alcohol under these licence types:
- general
- on-premises
- packaged liquor
- late night (general, on-premises or packaged liquor).
This includes the licensee and anyone who takes orders or payment for alcohol, pours alcoholic drinks or delivers them to a customer, stocks alcohol in view of the public or removes glasses containing alcohol at your venue.
RSA training may also be compulsory in other situations where there is a special condition on your licence.
Find out your requirements for Responsible Service of Alcohol training.
Display correct signage
Every licence type, except pre-retail, legally requires you to display certain signs.
You must display:
- a copy of your liquor licence or permit
- various signs, depending on your licence type.
They must be displayed in an area where customers can easily see them.
Find out what signs you must display and what’s optional for signage in licensed venues and locations.
Provide free drinking water
If you have a licensed venue, you are legally required to provide free drinking water to customers. This reduces alcohol-related harm by encouraging customers to pace themselves and stay hydrated.
To meet this requirement:
- the water you provide must be free, clean and available at all times your venue is open
- if customers cannot serve themselves water, staff must provide it when asked.
Download the ‘free water available’ poster from our optional signs.
In some rare situations, you can get an exemption from providing free drinking water.
Do not share your licence
As the licence or permit holder, you are personally responsible for all alcohol supplied under your licence.
Unless you have our approval, you must not:
- lease or sub-let any part of your licensed venue
- transfer or assign your right to supply alcohol to another person or business
- allow another person (who is not your employee) or entity to run a business supplying alcohol at your venue.
If you:
- want to sublet part of your venue, read how to make changes to your licence
- buy a business, before you can trade you must transfer the liquor licence into your name
- have a licence (other than BYO permit) and someone wants to use it for a one-off private event, they can only do this if you supply the alcohol. Otherwise, they need a temporary limited licence.
There are serious penalties for trading without a licence, including fines of more than $48,000.
Tell us if your details change
We need to know if the people involved in your business change.
Notify us within 14 days if either:
- someone becomes or stops being an associate
- you remove a director or nominee.
You can be penalised if you do not do this.
Get our approval before you either:
- add a new director
- appoint a new nominee.
You can be penalised if you do not get approval for a new director.
Read how to get approval, update details and make changes to your licence.
If you want to add a partner, you need to transfer the licence.
Promote alcohol responsibly
The Victorian Liquor Commission can ban advertising or promotions that:
- encourage or could lead to harmful or irresponsible drinking
- appeal to minors
- condone violence or anti-social behaviour.
It is against the law to display certain types of alcohol advertising within 150 metres of a school.
Find out how to advertise or promote alcohol responsibly.
Deliver alcohol safely
There are laws that apply if your licence type allows:
- you to deliver packaged alcohol to customers (for example, bottles of wine, 6-packs of beer)
- customers to pick up alcohol from your licensed location.
It is against the law to deliver alcohol to:
- a minor
- someone who is intoxicated or at substantial risk of being intoxicated.
There are other rules you must follow. Find out your legal requirements for alcohol delivery or pickup.
Compliance checklists
Use our checklists for compliance and best practice:
New staff information checklist Word 129.67 KB (opens in a new window)
Venue checklist PDF 220.01 KB (opens in a new window)
Alcohol delivery checklist Word 115.93 KB (opens in a new window)
Producer’s licence checklist PDF 184.82 KB (opens in a new window)
Club checklist Word 220.29 KB (opens in a new window)
Finals season self-audit PDF 96.77 KB (opens in a new window)
Updated 20 November 2025
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