Craft and nascent industry producers and manufacturers rarely face the realities of consumer fraud litigation that runs rampant for larger industry players. The reason is simple – deep pockets. The type of plaintiffs’ class action firms that go after these cases would rather chase the likes of MedMen and MillerCoors who can afford to pay out, and whose products sell at such large quantities that class sizes even over trivial class injuries, can amount to…

In a profound lesson to include choice of counsel and defense obligations in your sponsorship contracts, Jason Mraz has filed this complaint against MillerCoors over MillerCoors’ use of Jason Mraz’s May 2019 performance at the Beach Life Festival in an Instagram ad promoting MillerCoors.  The complaint alleges that MillerCoors used Mraz’s image and copyrighted material in the advertisement without his permission superimposing the Coors Light Logo over the ad. The complaint alleges copyright violation,…

The December 20, 2019, copy of the Illinois Register contains an end-of-year present for some Illinois beer, wine and liquor retailers in the form of a proposed rule from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission addressing the circumstances and manner in which Illinois’s alcoholic liquor (beer, wine, and spirits) retailers can accomplish certain forms of quantity discounting (cooperative purchasing, coupons, rebates) in their purchasing from wholesalers and manufacturers.  The proposed rulemaking will amend Illinois’s new-ish “of…

Kudos to the Miami Herald for the deep dive on the history of the Florida law banning adulteration of alcoholic beverages with grains of paradise. Their article, by David Ovalle gives you the background and history on the use of grains of paradise in drinks, and the movement to bar/ban/prohibit it as well as the historical context for Florida’s oddly specific anti-alcohol adulteration statute: 562.455 Adulterating liquor; penalty.—Whoever adulterates, for the purpose of sale,…

Kudos to the Miami Herald for the deep dive on the history of the Florida law banning adulteration of alcoholic beverages with grains of paradise. Their article, by David Ovalle gives you the background and history on the use of grains of paradise in drinks, and the movement to bar/ban/prohibit it as well as the historical context for Florida’s oddly specific anti-alcohol adulteration statute: 562.455 Adulterating liquor; penalty.—Whoever adulterates, for the purpose of sale,…

Yesterday the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation issued notice of an emergency rule that, if enacted, will govern the issue of what happens if there is a tie between applicants in the current point-based scoring process for Conditional Adult Use Dispensing Organization licenses under Illinois’s Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705). Briefly, given that there are 250 points available to each cannabis dispensary license applicant in the cannabis point…

You can read the petition for certiorari here. You saw this coming as the circuit split on this issue is real and the dissent to the denial of an en banc rehearing was powerful. Connecticut Fine Wines (the Connecticut arm of Total Wine) is taking umbrage (rightfully so) with the recent en banc Second Circuit denial for a rehearing of the opinion that did away with their antitrust challenge to Connecticut’s post-and-hold laws, minimum…