By Rebecca Stamey-White and Jeff Carroll
In our previous posts in this series, we covered the original regulatory frameworks for alcohol marketplaces (Part 1), the compounded sales tax complexities with the addition of marketplace facilitator laws (Part 2), the flow of funds considerations for marketplaces (Part 3), and age verification and enforcement issues (Part 4). Now we’ll look at what the future may bring for this important segment of the industry.
Read More
As the economy revives from the COVID-19 lockdowns, we expect privacy law regulatory enforcement to return to the pre-COVID-19 pace.
The privacy regulations affect all businesses, including the alcoholic beverage industry, and are “strict liability” laws. “Strict liability” means the business will be automatically “guilty” if found non-compliant. There is no “grace period” to rectify the claimed violation nor to offer any defense if non-compliant. Even more problematic, besides enforcement by government, these statutes also allow private parties to “enforce the law” by filing private complaints for claimed violations. These private complaints (the lawyers are referred to as “bounty hunters”) typically lead to significant monetary settlements. The settlement agreements include payment of the plaintiff’s attorney fees, a significant liability of its own (often larger than the fines from violation of the regulations).
Read More
By Rebecca Stamey-White and Jeff Carroll
Only businesses holding a license to sell alcohol at retail can sell alcohol to consumers. That simple fact complicates matters for unlicensed entities such as online marketplaces, delivery apps, and delivery services that would like to create or enhance platforms to facilitate alcohol sales. Marketplace platform providers, alcohol licensees, and alcohol and tax regulatory agencies all have different goals and concerns when it comes to the sale of beverage alcohol products.
Read More
By Rebecca Stamey-White and Jeff Carroll
Only businesses holding a license to sell alcohol at retail can sell alcohol to consumers. That simple fact complicates matters for unlicensed entities such as online marketplaces, delivery apps, and delivery services that would like to create or enhance platforms to facilitate alcohol sales. Marketplace platform providers, alcohol licensees, and alcohol and tax regulatory agencies all have different goals and concerns when it comes to the sale of beverage alcohol products.
Read More
Container sizes for alcoholic beverages are fraught with controversy. The industry wants flexibility in packaging but not so much that a plethora of different container sizes suddenly appear to mess up bottling lines and clog retail shelves, the bottler and container manufacturers want certainty so they can plan production and the regulators want ease of calculating alcohol tax revenue. Balancing these interests has become more difficult as domestic and international trade have opened borders to different container regulations.
Read More