For a week or two now #beerlaw twitter has been writing about the record breaking offer in compromise between Anheuser-Busch and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. A $5,000,000 payment for the charged violations (the allegations) of violating the trade practice laws set forth in 27 U.S.C. § 205 by:  entering into sponsorship agreements with various entities in the sports and entertainment industries requiring concessionaires and other retailers to purchase A-B’s malt beverages and prohibiting them from purchasing specific competitor brands;  inducing sports industry concessionaires to purchase A-B’s malt beverages by furnishing fixtures, equipment, and services;  reimbursing, through…

An Ohio Federal Court has marked two wine shipping cases as related. One suit has the State of Ohio as the plaintiff suing Wine.com and other online retailers in an attempt to stop the out-of-state liquor retailers from selling and shipping liquor direct to Ohioans and the other case is a wine direct shipping case from the same legal group pressing wine direct shipping cases across the country. In the State of Ohio case, the Attorney General is looking for a preliminary and then permanent injunction to halt alcohol direct to consumer sales by companies advertising “wine delivered right to…

Heaven Hill Distilleries recent win against a typosquatter holding heavenhlll.com provides a textbook example of a typo/cybersquatting claim. Craft distillers, craft brewers, and wineries, and other beverage brands should understand that there are straightforward legal remedies for obtaining or shutting down (or both) these types of offending domain names. A brief background on going after these types of confusing domain name issues – generally they arise in the form of cybersquatting or this form of typosquatting where traffic potentially looking for information or to interact with your beverage brand is redirected for a different purpose. In order to shut down…

In this case, a Florida bar appealed from a decision of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco finding that the license granting it a right to sell alcohol at catered special events, like music and other festivals, did not allow the licensee the right to receive deliveries of alcohol at catered events where they were lawfully allowed to sell alcohol. – That’s right, a state alcohol regulatory equivalent of created sick and commanded to be sound. The bar had initially sought a declaratory statement from the alcohol regulator that they could accept…

A dispute over a contracted alcoholic beverage between the parties to this alcoholic beverage manufacturing agreement arose after the purchaser, a company that markets, sells, and distributes alcoholic beverages, raised quality control issues with the manufacturer, a brewery, distillery, and winery producing the purchaser’s “chocolate and cream based wine blends” and a “cream and coffee based alcohol blend.” The complaint alleges that the manufacturer produced 3,126 cases of the purchasers iced coffee and at an August 2018 taste test, the purchaser noted the flavor was wrong. The manufacturer said it could safely adjust the taste by adding an additional ingredient.…

An appeal of a ruling in favor of a distiller against a consumer claiming an antiquated state food purity law trumped the TTB’s acceptance of FDA generally recognized as safe (GRAS) regulations may provide some much needed guidance for brewers, distillers, and vintners worried about state laws and standards regarding the production of beer, spirits and wine that prohibit activities allowed by Federal law or regulation. The appeal involves a recent preemption win that Bacardi had when a consumer brought suit against Bacardi based on a 150-year-old law on Florida’s books regarding some compounds and ingredients that, prior to decent…

We’d previously written about this case when the complaint was filed challenging the failure to award some of Illinois’s still unawarded medical cannabis dispensary licenses and discussed what the implications were given that medical cannabis dispensaries are allowed to sell recreational cannabis from their current dispensaries and granted an additional license to open a second adult use recreational cannabis facility in Illinois under illinois’s Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. Back when the initial licensing round was occurring, there were up to 60 medical cannabis dispensary licenses available, but the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation only issued 55. Recently,…

Last week we wrote about the updated criteria for forgiveness of the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Act implemented by the update to that program – the PPP Flexibility Act. The SBA has now released the newly updated forms for obtaining forgiveness – the loan forgiveness application and the new Form EZ loan forgiveness application. Each of these forms include the updates incorporated by the PPP Flexibility Act. The new EZ Form applies for borrowers in one or more of these groups: Self-employed or independent contractor/sole proprietorships with no employees when the PPP loan was applied for (you didn’t file…