Ashley Brandt

Answering the need for more accessible libation legal information, Ashley Brandt started the Libation Law Blog with the hope to address real questions for real food and beverage clients. Located in Chicago, Ashley’s belief in readily available information drives the blog and his law practice out of Goldstein & McClintock.

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari that Wal-Mart had filed in its fight to overturn a 5th Circuit ruling that Texas retail liquor licensing rules and Wal-Mart’s case against them required further fact finding.  Initially, the District Court had agreed with Wal-Mart that the Texas ban on public companies owning liquor stores had a discriminatory intent against out-of-state interests violating the Commerce Clause. The 5th Circuit reversed that decision remanding the case…
You’ll recall that the court had recently dismissed this matter finding that Minhas’s second amended complaint (Mountain Crest SRL, LLC) had failed to allege Molson and Anhueser violated federal antitrust laws by conspiring to harm Minhas through their distribution and marketing practices at beer stores in Ontario, Canada. This was only after the Seventh Circuit had reversed an initial dismissal remanding for the lower court to make determinations about the second amended complaint for a…
Omitting facts rarely ends well for people, let alone attorneys. Likewise, disregarding the law usually ends with a party on thin ice. So imagine the cringing surprise that hundreds of applicants for Illinois’ current round of adult use cannabis dispensary licenses felt upon reading this complaint filed by a few of the applicants that received the total points under the flawed scoring analysis conducted in the latest round of Illinois’ cannabis dispensary licensing. That cringe…
The good folks at the ILCC officially (this has been in the works for some time, but the process of getting a regulation approved in Illinois takes a while) adopted an updated regulation on the transfer of alcohol between retailers. You can find the new regulation Ill. Admin. Code tit 11 § 100.25 “Transfer of Alcohol” here. In brief, the new regulation explicates the process and justifications for retailers to transfer alcohol between each…
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You’ll remember the fun of the 9th Circuit opinion in the VIP Products v. Jack Daniel’s case from back in April where the 9th Circuit reversed a finding in favor of the distiller finding that a dog toy called “Bad Spaniels” and bearing a striking resemblance to Tennessee’s favorite whisky bottle had First Amendment protection as an expressive work regardless of its commercial aspirations: You can read our piece on this liquor trademark case here…
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When we last wrote about this case we discussed how Pabst, the maker of Olympia beer removed the words “Pure Mountain Water” from the text on its website questioning whether that helped or hurt its push to dismiss the claims brought by the plaintiff in the false advertising suit against the beer maker over the Olympia brand asserting the packaging gives the false impression that the beer is made from artesian waters near the Olympia…
The plaintiff, a wine and beer distributor bought beer in accordance with its contract with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts US Inc. On March 15, 2020, before the plaintiff shipped its product, Disney voluntarily closed the parkes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Disney refused to accept Plaintiff’s product or to compensate the beer wholesaler for the beer. Four days later, the beer distributor filed an insurance claim for the loss of business income, extra expense,…
As one judge put it to the state during this oral argument – “The issue is whether Tennessee Wine undermines the 8th Circuit precedent the district court relied on to tell the plaintiffs they didn’t plead a case.” We’ve written and posted the briefs on this important wine shipping case. You can find our initial post describing the matters involved here. And you can find the rest of the briefs for this out-of-state alcohol …
Here’s a great case from behind the cheddar curtain. You know, the state where the Department of Revenue makes no bones about its right to serve law: Can an underage person possess and consume alcohol beverages on licensed premises? Yes. Persons under age 21 may possess and consume alcohol beverages if they are with their parents, guardians or spouses of legal drinking age; but this is at the discretion of the licensee. The licensed premises…
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has announced that the applications for the state’s second round of Business Interruption Grants go live on September 17. In the second round, an additional $220 million is available for small businesses in Illinois. The first round was a success – you can see the list of grant recipients here. The second round is open to all small businesses meeting the criteria, but there are…