BYOB is one of the most misunderstood corners of licensing law. The short version: if you genuinely don’t sell or supply alcohol, you don’t need a licence to let customers bring their own. But “genuinely” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and several common BYOB setups do cross the line into licensable activity.
The legal test
The Licensing Act 2003 regulates the sale by retail of alcohol and its supply by clubs. Allowing a customer to drink wine they bought elsewhere involves no sale by you — so an unlicensed restaurant can run BYOB lawfully. That’s why many small restaurants and supper clubs start this way.
Where BYOB goes wrong
Corkage
Charging a corkage fee is generally treated as a charge for service (glassware, chilling, washing up), not a sale of alcohol — the customer already owns the wine. Most licensing authorities accept this, but a fee framed as “per bottle to consume alcohol” has occasionally been challenged as disguised sale. Keep corkage modest, describe it as a service charge, and if in doubt ask your licensing team.
“Free” drinks that aren’t
A welcome drink “included in the ticket”, a bottomless brunch “where you only pay for food”, or a deposit refunded in wine — all of these are sales. If alcohol is part of what the customer pays for in any form, it’s licensable. HMRC-style economic reality applies: follow the money.
Supplying the alcohol yourself
Keeping a fridge of beer to hand out to regulars, even without charging, can be a licensable supply in club-like arrangements — and if any payment, membership fee or donation ties to it, it’s a sale.
Licensed premises going BYOB
If your premises already holds a licence, BYOB doesn’t take you outside it — your conditions, hours and DPS duties still apply to consumption on the premises, and some licences have conditions restricting it.
BYOB done properly
- State the policy in writing: customers may bring sealed wine or beer; no spirits is a common house rule.
- Charge corkage as a service fee, if at all.
- Staff still shouldn’t serve visibly drunk customers — general safety duties don’t vanish with the licence.
- Age still matters: letting a 15-year-old drink the wine their parents brought exposes you to child-protection concerns even where no sale offence occurs. House rule: over-18s only.
When to get licensed instead
The moment your margins depend on drink sales, BYOB is costing you money — drinks are 60-70% gross margin for most restaurants. A premises licence for a small restaurant is a modest, one-off project: see the application guide, or have our team run it while you keep trading BYOB.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run BYOB nights at a village hall event?
If nobody sells alcohol, yes, no authorisation needed. The moment there’s a paid bar, you need a Temporary Event Notice.
Is a corkage-only restaurant breaking the law?
Mainstream view: no. Corkage is a service charge. But it has never been definitively settled in the higher courts, so avoid pricing structures that look like selling alcohol by another name.
Do BYOB customers count for my capacity or safety duties?
Yes — fire safety, health and safety, and (from 2027) Martyn’s Law duties count heads, not licences.
Weighing it up? Talk to our licensing team — often the honest answer is that a licence pays for itself within weeks.
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