Businesses that rent space on Greece's beaches are largely escaping oversight, and violations often go unpunished for an entire tourist season, the country's top audit court has found.
The Court of Audit said inspections are not carried out regularly.
The agencies in charge are short of staff and technology, and even when breaches are found, fines and sanctions are slow to follow.
As a result, many businesses keep operating through the summer despite documented violations.
The audit covered 19 municipalities and 14 state property offices, which issue permits for sunbeds, umbrellas and beach bars. Instead of planned, risk-based checks, inspectors mainly respond to complaints.
Complaints have soared since the government launched MyCoast, a phone app that lets the public report violations. Understaffed offices have struggled to keep up.
Inspection reports are not written up promptly as the law requires. Follow-up checks to confirm violations have been fixed are not carried out.
A registry of beach concession contracts is incomplete and cannot be accessed by all the agencies involved.
Cooperation between municipalities and state property offices was found to be ineffective.
The court concluded that protecting public access to the coast depends almost entirely on complaints from citizens.
The findings come as record tourism puts growing pressure on Greece's shoreline. Greek law guarantees free public access to all beaches.
Frustration over sunbeds crowding out beachgoers sparked a grassroots "towel movement" protest in 2023, which prompted the government to tighten rules.