Alcohol beverages violations involving underage persons that occur on licensed premises

What it does

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

This bill provides that an alcohol beverages server, not the retail licensee, is the person to be issued a citation for selling or providing alcohol beverages to an underage person on licensed premises if the violation is detected by means of an undercover law enforcement "sting" operation.

Under current law, no person, including an alcohol beverages retail licensee or the holder of an operator's (bartender's) license, may sell or provide alcohol beverages to a person under age 21 who is not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian, or spouse who is at least age 21. Current law also prohibits an adult from intentionally encouraging or contributing to an underage alcohol violation and from knowingly permitting or failing to take action to prevent the illegal consumption of alcohol beverages by an underage person on premises owned by the adult or under the adult's control. If a retail licensee violates any of these prohibitions, a court must suspend the retail license if the retail licensee committed a prior violation within the previous 12 months. For any person, other than a retail licensee, who violates any of these prohibitions, the person may be required to forfeit not more than $500 if the person has no prior violations within the previous 30 months; however, if the person has prior violations within this time period, the person is subject to various criminal penalties. In addition, if the person holds a bartender's license, the court must suspend the bartender's license if there is any prior violation within the previous 12 months. Only one penalty may be imposed for each underage person who is unlawfully provided alcohol beverages, so if alcohol beverages are provided on licensed premises by a bartender who is not the retail licensee, the bartender and the retail licensee cannot both be subject to a penalty for the violation.

Who's behind it

5 representatives are its authors⁠. All 5 are Republicans.