Bill Text: CA AB2452 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Alcoholic beverages: tied-house restrictions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 705, Statutes of 2018. [AB2452 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB2452-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2452

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Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry
(Principal coauthor: Senator Dodd)

February 14, 2018

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An act to amend Sections 25500.1, 25502.2, and 25503.4 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to alcoholic beverages.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2452, as introduced, Aguiar-Curry. Alcoholic beverages: tied-house restrictions.

(1) Existing law, known as tied-house restrictions, generally prohibits a manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer’s agent, rectifier, California winegrower’s agent, distiller, bottler, importer, and wholesaler, and any officer, director, or agent of any of those persons, from giving or lending money or a thing of value to a person operating, owning, or maintaining any on-sale premises where alcoholic beverages are sold. The law provides certain exceptions to this prohibition if specified requirements are met. In this regard, the listing of names, addresses, and telephone numbers, among other information, of two or more unaffiliated on-sale or off-sale retailers selling alcoholic beverages that are produced, distributed, or imported by a nonretail industry member is not a thing of value or a prohibited inducement to the on-sale or off-sale retailer, if certain conditions are met, including that the listing not refer only to one on-sale or off-sale retailer or only to on-sale or off-sale retail establishments controlled by the same retailer.

This bill would eliminate the requirement that the listing of information, described above, refer to more than one on-sale or off-sale retailer or more than one on-sale or off-sale retail establishments controlled by the same retailer.

(2) Tied-house restrictions permit a person employed or engaged by an authorized licensee to appear at a promotional event at the premises of an off-sale retail licensee for the purposes of providing autographs if specified conditions are met. In this regard, the authorized licensee may advertise the promotional event only in authorized licensee publications and, among other things, those advertisements are prohibited from providing pictures or illustrations of the off-sale retail licensee’s premises.

This bill would eliminate the prohibition on the presence of pictures or illustrations of the off-sale retail licensee’s premises in the advertisements described above.

(3) Tied-house restrictions permit a winegrower, California winegrower’s agent, wine importer, or any director, partner, officer, agent, or representative of that person, to conduct or participate in, and serve wine at, an instructional event for consumers held at a retailer’s premises, if specified conditions are met. In this regard, these parties may list certain information in advertisements for the event, but those advertisements are prohibited from containing pictures or illustrations of the retailer premises.

This bill would eliminate the prohibition on the presence of pictures or illustrations of the retailer’s premises in the advertisements described above.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 25500.1 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

25500.1.

 (a) The listing of the names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, or Internet Web site addresses, or other electronic media, of two or more unaffiliated on-sale or off-sale retailers selling beer, wine, or distilled spirits produced, distributed, or imported by a nonretail industry member does not constitute a thing of value or prohibited inducement to the listed on-sale or off-sale retailer, provided all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The listing does not also contain the retail price of the product.

(2) The listing is the only reference to the on-sale or off-sale retailers in the direct communication.

(3)The listing does not refer only to one on-sale or off-sale retailer or only to on-sale or off-sale retail establishments controlled directly or indirectly by the same retailer.

(4)

(3) The listing is made, or produced, or paid for, exclusively by the nonretail industry member.

(b) For the purposes of this section, “nonretail industry member” is defined as a manufacturer, including, but not limited to, a beer manufacturer, winegrower, brandy manufacturer, rectifier, or distiller of alcoholic beverages or an agent of that entity, or a wholesaler, regardless of any other licenses held directly or indirectly by that person.

(c) The Legislature finds that it is necessary and proper to require a separation among manufacturing interests, wholesale interests, and retail interests in the production and distribution of alcoholic beverages in order to prevent suppliers from dominating local markets through vertical integration and to prevent excessive sales of alcoholic beverages produced by overly aggressive marketing techniques. The Legislature further finds that the exceptions established by this section to the general prohibition against tied interests shall be limited to their express terms so as not to undermine the general prohibition, and intends that this section be construed accordingly.

SEC. 2.

 Section 25502.2 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

25502.2.

 (a) A person employed or engaged by an authorized licensee may appear at a promotional event at the premises of an off-sale retail licensee for the purposes of providing autographs to consumers at the promotional event only under the following conditions:

(1) A purchase from the off-sale retail licensee is not required.

(2) A fee is not charged to attend the promotional event.

(3) Autographing may only be provided on consumer advertising specialities given by the authorized licensee to a consumer or on any item provided by the consumer.

(4) The promotional event does not exceed four hours in duration.

(5) There are no more than two promotional events per calendar year involving the same authorized licensee at a single premises of an off-sale retail licensee.

(6) The off-sale retail licensee may advertise the promotional event to be held at its licensed premises.

(7) An authorized licensee may advertise in advance of the promotional event only in publications of the authorized licensee, subject to the following conditions:

(A) The advertising only lists the name and address of the off-sale retail licensee, the name of the alcoholic beverage product being featured at the promotional event, and the time, date, and location of the off-sale retail licensee location where the promotional event is being held.

(B) The listing of the off-sale retail licensee’s name and address is the only reference to the off-sale retail licensee in the advertisement and is relatively inconspicuous in relation to the advertisement as a whole, and the advertisement does not contain any pictures or illustrations of the off-sale retail licensee’s premises or laudatory references to the off-sale retail licensee.

(8) A wholesaler does not directly or indirectly underwrite, share in, or contribute to any costs related to the promotional event, except that a beer and wine wholesaler that holds at least six distilled spirits wholesaler licenses may directly or indirectly underwrite, share in, or contribute to any costs related to a promotional event for which the wholesaler employs or engages the person providing autographs to consumers at the promotional event.

(9) The authorized licensee notifies the department in writing of the promotional event at least 30 days in advance of the promotional event.

(10) The authorized licensee maintains records necessary to establish its compliance with this section.

(b) For purposes of this section, “authorized licensee” means a manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer’s agent, California winegrower’s agent, rectifier, importer, brandy manufacturer, brandy importer, or wholesaler.

SEC. 3.

 Section 25503.4 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

25503.4.

 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, a winegrower, California winegrower’s agent, wine importer, or any director, partner, officer, agent, or representative of that person, may conduct or participate in, and serve wine at, an instructional event for consumers held at a retailer’s premises featuring wines produced by or for the winegrower or, imported by the wine importer, subject to the following conditions:

(1) No premium, gift, free goods, or other thing of value may be given away in connection with the instructional event by the winegrower, California winegrower’s agent, wine importer, or retailer, except as authorized by this division.

(2) No alcoholic beverages may be given away in connection with the instructional event except that minimal amounts of wine, taken from barrels or from tanks, may be supplied and provided as samples at the instructional event. A person authorized by subdivision (a) may also provide no more than three one-ounce tastes of wine per consumer at the instructional event from bottles of wine provided by the authorized person. For purposes of this section, minimal amounts of the samples or tastes provided at the instructional event do not constitute a thing of value. Following the instructional event, any unused wine provided by the authorized person shall be removed from the retailer’s premises by the authorized person.

(3) No alcoholic beverages may be sold at the instructional event, except that orders for the sale of wine may be accepted by the winegrower if the sales transaction is completed at the winegrower’s premises.

(b) Notwithstanding Section 25502.2, a person identified in subdivision (a) appearing at an instructional event described in subdivision (a) may, in addition to other permitted activities, provide autographs to consumers on consumer advertising specialties given by the person to a consumer or on any item provided by a consumer. No purchase of any alcoholic beverage shall be required in connection with such autographing.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, a winegrower, California winegrower’s agent, or wine importer, in advance of an instructional event for consumers being held at a retailer’s premises, may list in an advertisement the name and address of the retailer, the names of the wines being featured at the instructional event, and the time, date, and location of, and other information about, the instructional event, provided:

(1) The advertisement does not also contain the retail price of the wines.

(2) The listing of the retailer’s name and address is the only reference to the retailer in the advertisement and is relatively inconspicuous in relation to the advertisement as a whole. Pictures or illustrations of the retailer’s premises and laudatory Laudatory references to the retailer in these advertisements are not hereby authorized.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, the name and address of a winegrower, wine importer, or winegrower’s agent licensee, the brand names of wine being featured, and the time, date, location, and other identifying information of a wine promotional lecture at retail premises may be listed in advance of the event in an advertisement of the off-sale or on-sale retail licensee.

(e) Nothing in this section authorizes a winegrower, wine importer, or winegrower’s agent licensee to share in the costs, if any, of the retailer licensee’s advertisement.

(f) Nothing in this section authorizes any person to consume any alcoholic beverage on any premises licensed with an off-sale retail license.