California’s New Events-Based Tied House Exception and Why Everyone Is So Excited

The What: California expanded an alcohol supplier’s ability to advertise events taking place at retail locations starting this year. Under AB 2452, suppliers may post photos (strangely, no video) of the retail premises  on social media in connection with the following types of events:

• Winemaker’s dinners (B&P Code Section 25503.4)

• Tastings on off-sale retail premises with a type 86 tasting license (B&P Code Section 25503.56), and

• Tastings at on-sale retail premises (B&P Code Section 25503.57)

Previously, the law only allowed suppliers to mention the location of the event and basic details, but you couldn’t explicitly include pictures of the retail premises, so it made it difficult (or folks had to take the risk) to actually promote events on Instagram, Facebook and on websites.  Now it’s explicitly permissible to advertise these events with photos, which is helpful, since every social media platform these days focuses on photos and video.