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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 3. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control
Agency 5. Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority
Chapter 50. Retail Operations
12/30/2024

3VAC5-50-160. Happy hour and related promotions; definitions; exceptions.

A. Definitions. The following words and terms when used in this section shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

1. "Happy hour" means a specified period of time during which alcoholic beverages are sold at prices reduced from the customary price established by a retail licensee.

2. "Drink" means any beverage containing the amount of alcoholic beverages customarily served to a patron as a single serving by a retail licensee.

B. A licensee may advertise its happy hour so long as the advertising does not tend to induce minors or other interdicted individuals to drink or encourage persons to consume to excess.

C. No retail licensee shall engage in any of the following practices:

1. Conducting a happy hour between 9 p.m. of each day and 2 a.m. of the following day;

2. Increasing the volume of alcoholic beverages contained in a drink without increasing proportionately the customary or established retail price charged for such drink;

3. Selling two or more drinks for one price, such as "two for one" or "three for one";

4. Selling an unlimited number of drinks for one price, such as "all you can drink for $5.00"; or

5. Establishing a customary retail price for any drink at a markup over cost significantly less than that applied to other beverages of similar type, quality, or volume.

D. This section shall not apply to prearranged private parties, functions, or events, not open to the public, where the guests thereof are served in a room designated and used exclusively for private parties, functions, or events.

E. This section is subject to and shall be adhered to in a manner consistent with all other regulations of the authority.

Statutory Authority

§§ 4.1-103 and 4.1-111 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from VR125-01-5 § 16, eff. December 12, 1985; amended, Virginia Register Volume 4, Issue 6, January 21, 1988; Volume 5, Issue 2, eff. November 24, 1988; Volume 7, Issue 4, eff. December 19, 1990; Volume 8, Issue 6, eff. January 15, 1992; Volume 9, Issue 6, eff. January 13, 1993; Volume 10, Issue 11, eff. March 23, 1994; Volume 30, Issue 9, eff. January 29, 2014; Volume 32, Issue 20, eff. July 15, 2016; Volume 36, Issue 4, eff. November 15, 2019.

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