Libation Law Blog

Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Regulatory and Legal Updates

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By: Ashley Brandt

Latest from Libation Law Blog - Page 2

Bars, restaurants, and brewpubs – from chains to stand-alone locations — were already facing significant headwinds in 2019 due to higher payroll costs (including due to minimum wage increases), increasing consumer preference for take-out, and other factors. This resulted in numerous bankruptcies, including from well-known chains such as Houlihan’s, Perkins, Granite City Food & Brewery, Kona Grill, and numerous others. The impact of COVID-19 on an already challenged industry has been devastating and promises to…
Last night the Illinois Liquor Control Commission (these people are working tirelessly) posted an updated FAQ addressing questions from the industry related to Illinois’s new Executive Order 2020-10, the Stay at Home order that goes into effect tonight. As we posted yesterday, Illinois’s breweries, wineries, and distilleries, restaurants, and cannabis dispensaries are essential businesses under this order and can continue operations (no on-premise consumption or dining, of course). In addition to confirming the essential nature…
On Friday afternoon, as the Chicago Tribune reported he would, Governor Pritzker ordered Illinois to stay at home and that many businesses cease operating apart from letting their employees work from home. Thankfully for much of the hospitality industry and its support network, the businesses that supply alcohol, cannabis, and meals are considered essential businesses. Here’s the language that enacts that: 12. Essential Businesses and Operations. For the purposes of this Executive Order, Essential Businesses…
You can find the fully updated FAQ on the rights and obligations currently emplaced for alcoholic beverage retailers and manufacturers here. Some important notes from the guidance: Manufacturers’ (Illinois’s brewers, distillers, brewpubs and distilling pubs) right to delivery can only deliver if they have a local license to sell at retail: Q. May a brewer, class 1 brewer, class 2 brewer, class 1 craft distiller, class 2 craft distiller, brew pub or distilling pub…
When the Illinois Liquor Control Commission put out its guidance and Q&A regarding operations of the alcoholic beverage industry members during the COVID-19 pandemic, it made a particular point that its interpretation of the Illinois Liquor Control Act involved not allowing breweries, brewpubs, distilleries and distilling pubs to ship or deliver directly to Illinoisans even though retailers and wineries have that right provided they obtain/hold the right licenses and local permissions. This put Illinois’s brewpubs,…
Last week the Illinois Liquor Control Commission announced the allowance of buybacks for beer and the allowance of returns for liquor and wine pending TTB authorization for cancelled St. Patrick’s Day Parade events but did not then extend that authorization beyond those cancelled parades to other events and gatherings cancelled on account of COVID-19 and then appeared to double-down in prohibiting shuttered or strangled restaurants and bars from returns based on COVID-19 loss of business…
As we’ve written before, a liquor store, Connecticut Fine Wines (the Connecticut arm of Total Wine) had an issue with some of Connecticut’s alcoholic beverage laws. Specifically, they brought suit challenging Connecticut’s post-and-hold laws, minimum pricing laws, and restrictions on volume discounts and rebates for alcohol sales. The liquor store chain lost at the Second Circuit, but their loss sparked a scathing dissent from Judges who would have granted them an en banc review of…
The TTB today announced exemptions for DSPs and AFPs in working to create hand sanitizers. The full release is below. Special Edition – COVID-19 Production of Hand Sanitizer by Distilled Spirits Permittees Greetings! This special edition contains guidance for DSPs and Industrial Alcohol User permittees on producing ethanol-based hand sanitizers. Due to the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Acting Administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has found that it is…
You can read our post on this and applying for these emergency loans from earlier today here. Today Illinois and Indiana were added and have been declared disaster areas. Here is the link to apply: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/ The post UPDATE: Illinois and Indiana are now COVID-19 Eligible Disaster Areas for purposes of the SBA emergency loans. appeared first on Libation Law Blog.…