Brendan Mulvaney’s makeshift stand was located just outside the Saratoga County Fair in upstate New York, where a group of vendors reportedly made complaints to a state health official doing a routine inspection of the fair about the young competition, according to the New York Post.
The inspector then made a visit to the lemonade stand, where he reportedly ordered the family to shut down the operation.
“We didn’t think that we needed [a permit], we didn’t know that we needed one,” the young boy’s mother, Jodi Mulvaney, told the Post. “It didn’t even cross our minds.”
Local authorities told the outlet it was unusual for the state’s health department to be regulating lemonade stands.
The agency issued a public apology to the 7-year-old “for any inconvenience.”