Opener
The federal crackdown on “pay to play” arrangements in the alcohol beverage industry continues. In a press release issued on Friday, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau announced that it was conducting a joint operation with the Illinois Liquor Control Commission to look into alleged “pay-to-play” in Chicago, the […]
An en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit (the federal appeals court with jurisdiction for the nine western states) has rejected a First Amendment challenge to California’s tied house laws. In so doing, the court overturned an earlier decision by a three-judge panel that had applied a more rigorous standard […]
Clients often ask us about enforcement of the various alcohol beverage regulations and tied house laws that apply to industry members. “Tied-house” laws generally prohibit supplier-side licensees (including producers and wholesalers) from giving, directly or indirectly, any premium, gift, or “thing of value” to retail licensees, unless a specific exception applies. Over the past year, […]