BILL NUMBER: AB 780	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Williams

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2015

   An act to amend Section 25500.1 of the Business and Professions
Code, relating to alcoholic beverages.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 780, as introduced, Williams. Alcoholic beverages: tied-house
restrictions: on-sale retailers advertising.
   The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act generally prohibits a
manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer's agent, California winegrower'
s agent, rectifier, distiller, bottler, importer, or wholesaler from
furnishing or lending money or other thing of value to a person
engaged in operating, owning, or maintaining an on-sale licensed
premises. The act provides that the listing of the names, addresses,
telephone numbers, email addresses, Internet Web site addresses, or
other electronic media, of 2 or more unaffiliated on-sale retailers
selling beer, wine, or distilled spirits, as specified, in response
to a direct inquiry from a consumer, as specified, does not
constitute a thing of value or prohibited inducement, if specified
conditions are met. The act includes among those conditions the
requirement that the listing not refer to only one on-sale retailer
or only to on-sale retail establishments controlled by the same
retailer.
   This bill would broaden the exception described above by removing
the requirement that the listing refer to two or more unaffiliated
retailers or be in response to a direct inquiry, as specified. The
bill would also remove the condition that the listing not refer to
only one on-sale retailer or only to on-sale retail establishments
controlled by the same retailer.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 25500.1 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   25500.1.  (a)   The listing of the names, addresses,
telephone numbers, email addresses, or Internet Web site addresses,
or other electronic media, of  two or more unaffiliated
 on-sale retailers selling beer, wine, or distilled spirits
produced, distributed, or imported by a nonretail industry member
 in response to a direct inquiry from a consumer received by
telephone, by mail, by electronic inquiry, or in person 
does not constitute a thing of value or prohibited inducement to the
listed on-sale retailer, provided all of the following conditions are
met:
   (1) The listing does not also contain the retail price of the
product.
   (2) The listing is the only reference to the on-sale retailers in
the direct communication. 
   (3) The listing does not refer only to one on-sale retailer or
only to on-sale retail establishments controlled directly or
indirectly by the same on-sale retailer.  
   (4) 
    (3)  The listing is made by, or produced by, or paid
for, exclusively by the nonretail industry member  making the
response  .
   (b) For the purposes of this section, "nonretail industry member"
is defined as a manufacturer, including, but not limited to, a beer
manufacturer, winegrower, or distiller of alcoholic beverages or an
agent of that entity, or a wholesaler, regardless of any other
licenses held directly or indirectly by that person.