Transfer of catering business: transmit licenses

• Small restaurant license, which allows to sell the drinks of the third group for consumption on site, but only on the occasion of the main meals and as food accessories;
• Restaurant license, which allows to sell to consume on site all the drinks whose consumption is authorized, but only on the occasion of the main meals and as accessories of the food.

V. The specifics of Beverage Licenses and Restaurant Licenses

Beverage licenses and restaurant licenses are governed by their own regimes.

Couples Drinking establishmentSwaps are subject to strict conditions provided for by the Public Health Code, for example, limiting the number of Beverage serving activities, prohibit the opening of new 4th category outlets, protect protection zones around certain establishments (educational or health establishments, etc.) or around certain industrial or commercial zones.

Restaurant Licenses are generally considered to be less restrictive. Nevertheless, it is important to be particularly vigilant of the conditions imposed by the Public Health Code. Alcohol can only be served during the main meals and as an accessory to food. Numerous decisions have been rendered on these two cumulative concepts.

2. Assignment of Restaurant Licenses

With regard to the transfer of restoration funds, it should be remembered that the licenses are personal to the operator but that they form part of the business and can be transmitted with him.

This duality between attachment to the operator and attachment to the fund necessarily leads the purchaser to question the possibility and conditions of transfer of the Licenses.

a. — The queries

In the event of transfer of goodwill, this restoration must first be determined:

– whether the License will be among the elements transferred,
– if so, what type of License is it. The operating conditions will differ (for example, in the case of Restaurant Licensing, alcohol can only be served during main meals as an accessory to food).

b. The conditions attached to the purchaser

The purchaser must question his personal ability to operate a restaurant offering the sale of alcohol on site.

Indeed, prohibitions apply, for example, to incapacitated persons (minors, adults under guardianship), persons who have been the subject of certain convictions, and incompatibilities with other professions exist.

Above all, the purchaser must hold an operating permit provided for in Article L.3332-1-1 of the Public Health Code for both Beverage Licenses and Catering Licenses. This permit is issued, for a period of 10 years, at the end of training relating in particular to the prevention and fight against alcoholism, the protection of minors and the repression of public intoxication.

V. statement of assignment

In the same way, upstream and no later than 15 days before the transfer of the Licence, the purchaser must make a declaration “identical to that required for the opening of a beverage outlet” (Article L.3332-4 CSP) to the Mayor or, in Paris, the Prefect of Police.

As part of this prior declaration, the purchaser must produce his operating permit and certify that he does not fall into the cases of incompatibility mentioned above. A refusal may be made to the applicant if the prerequisites are not met.

Given the supervision of the conditions of detention and transfer of a 3rd and 4th category Beverage License or a Small or Large Catering License, their transfer with the other elements of the business is generally accompanied by a condition precedent.