As you may be aware, Act 39 of 2016 (“Act 39”) took effect on August 8, 2016, and it brought with it much confusion with regard to the many aspects of the Liquor Code. One area that has brought the most confusion is with Act 39’s new Responsible Alcohol Management Program (“RAMP”) requirements for licensees, specifically for the servers/sellers of said licensees.
One of the new requirements in Act 39 with regard to RAMP compliance read that “Unless successfully completed prior to being hired, all alcohol service personnel shall be required to complete the training for alcohol service personnel under subsection (b) within six months of being hired by a licensed establishment.” The highlighted language “all” is what caused confusion among licensees. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (“PLCB”) recently released an Advisory Opinion regarding Act 39’s RAMP requirements for newly-hired and current servers/sellers. The question posed to the PLCB was whether the new RAMP requirement applied to just new server/sellers as of August 8, 2016, or did it apply to current server/sellers and all new server/sellers after August 8, 2016.
