MHRA urges government to ‘stick to its guns’ on bottle shop alcohol ban

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has written to the government urging it to put its foot down and declare that the ban on confectioneries selling alcohol after 9pm does not change.

The MHRA said it wants the ban on so called bottle shops – confectioneries on the margins of entertainment which sell alcohol in the evening – to be immediately enforced, “particularly in areas of entertainment where the law was being broken in the most open and defiant manner.”

On the other hand, the Chamber of SMEs (GRTU) has come out against the revised law banning the sale of alcohol from confectioneries after 9pm. It says the law, which it called “retrograde”, creates unfair commercial disadvantages for confectioneries. The Parliamentary Secretary for small business Jason Azzopardi defended the law, saying the GRTU was involved in negotiations on the regulations concerning bottle shops.

The MHRA said the ban’s new penalties on shops “only raises penalties to a level that constitutes a real deterrent to risk takers.”

As the law stood previously, bottle shops were never allowed to sell alcohol after 9pm. What is different now is that in case of an infringement, the penalty – which was previously €116 – has increased to €5,000 together with a six-month suspension of the trading license.

“This explains why in the past so many shops did not hesitate to risk breaking the law and perhaps also why enforcement was non-existent. The objections raised against the hike in the penalties suggest a reversal to a law that offers no deterrent at all, so that many will revert to breaking the law as they did, so flagrantly, in the past,” the MHRA said.

The hoteliers’ association also said that banning the sale of alcohol after 9pm from confectioneries would not given advantage to other sectors selling alcohol. The Consumers Association said the laws would prevent consumers from making home purchases after certain hours from confectioneries.

“The new amended regulations are just about creating a real deterrent to eliminate a great deal of problems experienced particularly in main tourist and entertainment areas. The sight of unruly behaviour and empty bottles of alcohol littering the streets of Paceville, Sliema and Buġibba, among other areas, was a common sight every summer,” the MHRA said.

“Malta suffered a lot of bad publicity in the international media, with the islands being portrayed as a country that facilitates access to alcohol, particularly in areas of entertainment. Malta was being perceived as a nation that actually encourages the greater consumption of alcohol, indifferent to the problems this brings about and oblivious to the social implications it can create.”