Serving food and non-alcoholic beverages requires a food service licence. Serving alcoholic beverages requires both a food service licence and a licence to serve alcoholic beverages.
If you are opening a grocery store, delicatessen or shop specialising in meat and/or fish that also retails alcoholic beverages or beer and soft drinks, a brewery sales outlet or sale of imported alcoholic beverages, you must have a licence to retail alcoholic beverages.
The Licensing Division processes applications for licences to serve food, serve alcoholic beverages or retail alcoholic beverages in the City of Oslo, pursuant to the Food Services Act and the Alcohol Act.
If you do not have an ordinary licence to serve alcohol and want to serve alcohol at a one-off public event or private function, you must normally apply for a licence to serve alcohol for a single event.
The Licensing Division issues ambulatory licences (licences issued for a single event for a private function ) and licences for a specific single event (licence for up to seven days for a public event), and applications for extension of permanent licences for individual events.
The Licensing Division is also responsible for holding the Alcohol Act knowledge test and the Food Services Act knowledge test. Managers of establishments licensed to serve alcohol must have passed both the Alcohol Act knowledge test and the Food Services Act knowledge test. Deputies in establishments that serve alcohol must also have passed the Alcohol Act knowledge test. Managers of establishments that only have a food service licence must have passed the Food Services Act knowledge test. In establishments with a licence to retail alcoholic beverages, both the manager and his/her deputy must have passed the Alcohol Act knowledge test.
The Licensing Division makes sure that the requirement of good repute is met in connection with processing an application. In this context, the Agency for Business Development Services consults the following bodies:
- The Police
- The district authorities
- The Tax Collection Office
- The County Tax Office
- The local tax assessment office
- The tax collector’s office
A licence to serve and sell alcoholic beverages entails a licensing fee. For ordinary licences, the fee is calculated on the basis of amount (in litres) of alcoholic beverages sold. For other types of licences, a one-off fee is paid.
The Licensing Division processes complaints and appeals in connection with denial of applications pursuant to the Food Services Act and the Alcohol Act.