Do I need any licenses or such to sell non-alcoholic drinks in Poland?

Title speaks for itself, but I'm not a polish citizen.

Are you a EU citizen?

Yes I am.

Lithuanian?

No alcohol = no license needed. Even selling a "non-alcohol" beer which has 0,5% of alcohol doesn't require any concession.
Only drinks with more than 0,5% alcohol need permission in the trade.

@Looker nice! Thank you for your answer! Did that mean that I could pretty much make a stand and sell drinks without anybody bothering me anywhere in Poland?

Sorry dreamergirl, but I prefer to keep that to myself unless it matters to the discussion. :) why do you want to know may I ask?

Lithuanian men cause issues for me

Stop trolling

Definitely no. Looker is talking about an alcohol off-sales licence; you mean something different.

If you want to be a street trader you will first need to register a business and secondly apply for a pitch (with detailed plans in the correct format showing where exactly you want to have it) as well as complying with any environmental health regulations that may pertain.

Aha. Sorry for not formulating the question correctly. Does the business have to be based in Poland? As for the pitch, where do I go to do that, and can it be done with just basic Polish skills?

@dreamergirl what issues are those? I'm curious. :)

In theory no, however it would be bureaucratic overkill to register a UK company and then register a presence in Poland which you would need to do in order to get the pitch.


In Warsaw it depends what sort of street it's on. Depends whether it's on a bus route or not. For one you go to the department of roads and highways and for the other to the city hall (easier, hence most of the people who sell veg on street stalls do it just round the corner from a bigger road). Outside big cities the rules may be different.


You would need a Polish speaker to help you through the process. My ex (who is Polish) did it once and it took a while. It's a little easier in one of those big markets (Wołumen, Rożyckiego, Braci Wagów if it's still there) where you just pay a flat fee to the organisers, however you would still need to be registered as a sole trader (plenty of information on the various steps to do that here in this forum).

I see. So if it's just me, I need to register as a dime trader instead of creating a business. That's convenient. But I either need to register in a town hall with a translator (easier way, makes sense) or I need to pay a flat fee at a "farmers market". I hope I understood it correctly. Thanks for explaining!

@dreamergirl hahaha why do they do that?

It's actually much the same in Poland - there are still quite a few steps to go through, registering at City hall, tax, office of statistics, bank account etc.


That's true and the flat fee is as I remember very low, though I'd point out that those markets are a lot less classy than a farmers' market ;-)

Farmers' markets do exist (there's a good one in Wroclaw sometimes and a seasonal one before Christmas in pl. Wilsona, Warsaw) but they're relatively new and I'm not sure who organises them. They do seem well organised.

Thank you for your answers. :)