Legislative, Government Affairs & Legal Updates

The New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) on Wednesday finalized a $1.25 million settlement agreement with Heineken USA (HUSA) for 42 alleged violations of the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) law. The New York fine comes three months after HUSA agreed to pay the largest offer in compromise ever — $2.5 million — to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for alleged trade practice violations related to its proprietary “BrewLock” draft systems.

The nearly decade-long debate over Massachusetts’ controversial franchise laws resumed Monday, as the state’s craft brewers and beer wholesalers packed a meeting of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. Brewers and wholesalers remain divided on how to reform strict franchise laws, which brewers claim lock their businesses into nearly unbreakable relationships with wholesalers. Each side presented revised proposals, which they argued would benefit each other.

In this week’s Last Call: Budweiser becomes the ‘official beer’ of the National Women’s Soccer League; California revises the definition of ‘beer’; A-B back away from its Asia Pacific IPO; Founders Announces the end of CBS; and more news.

The Brewers Association (BA) has severed ties with longtime New York-based PR firm The Rosen Group. The Colorado-headquartered not-for-profit trade association representing small and independent U.S. craft brewers today announced it has chosen Backbone Media as its new public relations agency of record. Backbone, based in Carbondale, Colorado, supplants The Rosen Group, which had served as the BA’s public relations firm for more than a decade.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Smuttynose and Hop Valley shuffle executives; Boston Beer and Dogfish Head’s merger closes; Deschutes Brewery adds distribution in Indiana, New Jersey; Reyes Holdings sells Reinhart Foodservice for $2 billion; and more news.

Six months after hearing oral arguments in a constitutional challenge to Tennessee’s two-year residency requirement for obtaining a retail liquor license, the United States Supreme Court yesterday struck down a controversial stipulation that had prevented out of state retailers from setting up shop in the Volunteer State.

In the latest Legislative Update: Maine lawmakers vote to reform self-distribution and franchise laws; Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs a law increasing the amount of beer craft breweries can sell directly to consumers; North Carolina passes legislation to sell beer and wine at college sporting events; and Pennsylvania legislators consider a lower sales tax on at-the-brewery sales.

In this week’s Last Call: The House Ways and Means Committee passed a one-year extension of the federal excise tax relief for alcohol producers and importers. Also, U.S. beer shipments declined in May, Deschutes begins selling canned drinking water, Bell’s Two Hearted tops the AHA’s best list, and more news briefs.

An effort to maintain reduced federal excise taxes (FET) on all brewers an importers could take a major step forward tonight. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to extend tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers as part of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 3301) extender bill.

In the latest Last Call: Michigan’s Axle Brewing is searching for a buyer, as the company prepares to close its Ferndale-based taproom at the end of June. Also, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to sign beer-to-go measure into law on June 15, and more industry news.

The Brewbound team hit the 2019 SAVOR event to ask several brewery owners — including James Beard Award winners Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Company — and other industry stakeholders how SAVOR and events like it help elevate the beer category.

In this week’s Last Call: Heineken makes a minority investment in Amsterdam’s Oedipus; Bumble announces plans to open a brick-and-mortar bar in SoHo; the SEC lifts its ban on alcohol sales at sporting events; the future of Breckenridge’s brewpub is uncertain; and more news.

Alcohol producers’ efforts to make excise tax relief permanent reached another milestone today, as a majority of Congress now supports the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA). In a joint announcement, seven alcohol industry trade groups said a bill to permanently enact tax cuts for alcohol producers and importers now has 218 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The the latest Legislative Update: Pennsylvania brewers are on the verge of a sales tax compromise; Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signs an alcohol reform bill; Maine brewers and wholesalers seek franchise reform; Illinois’ governor seek beer tax hike; and more notes from the states.