What UK law and the regulators actually require of a restaurant that publishes.
A business sale does not move the alcohol licence, a death or insolvency starts a 28-day clock, and a stale “fully licensed” claim now risks a fine.
Existing directors get a grace period tied to their next filing — but one already overdue on 18 November 2025 forfeited it on 2 December, at real legal exposure.
A roofed, heated terrace can be legally smoke-free without anyone realising — risking a fixed penalty on the business and the staff member who missed it.
The old HMRC enforcement powers were repealed on 7 April 2026; their replacement is only in force for specified purposes — a gap that carries real financial exposure.
A false highchair or step-free claim and a disabled guest turned away are two separate legal risks, not one — confusing them costs a restaurant the right defence.
A defamatory review risks real bookings, but only one of five legal routes actually removes it — and none of them hand over who wrote it.
Staff enforce the line the restaurant published, and that line becomes the evidence. What a site says about dogs carries more legal risk than what it leaves unwritten.
A restaurant membership can be live in an afternoon, and the rules most owners have read about are dormant. The older ones that bite may carry a twelve-month refund exposure.
A club where one saver’s balance passes £120, or last year’s turnover passed £1,000,000, loses the small-business exclusion and picks up costs nobody planned for.
Switching on a photo gallery or a guest message board can end a website's Online Safety Act exemption for the whole service, and the risk is one an owner must judge alone.
A manager who serves the difficult table himself and writes nothing down may already put the restaurant in breach, and no complaint is needed before the regulator acts.
Boosting a burger post is a payment to place an advertisement. Its lawfulness turns on a headcount taken on a day the Regulations never name, and the risk sits with the payer.
