Chicagoist: Two-Way Traffic Jam For Wine Sales

PirateAlice

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:58:47 -0600

The guy at Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog has explained in simple terms how this will affect Illinois consumers. http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2007/06/the_cost_of_con.html I've written to my state legislators, but obviously they want to take everything away from the consumers.

Lee

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:31:46 -0600

So our state still has no budget, legislators are in overtime, our transit system is ready to start taking a nose dive if legislators don't start paying attention, and they're down their talking about wine????? I'm starting to see the light on why people love New York so much.

Ian Griffith

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:39:08 -0600

HB 429 would be constitutional if it treated wineries and retailers the same whether they were in Illinois or in another state. But it allows IL retailers to ship to customers while prohibitting the same practice by out-of-state wine merchants. “If a State chooses to allow direct shipment of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms.”

Giant Rabbit

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:03:19 -0600

The General Assembly should never be trusted with liquor distribution and retailing laws, the Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act being a classic example. That said, it looks to me like this is a legitimate attempt to comply, however minimally and grudgingly, with Granholm. It's not good public policy, of course, but it might squeak by constitutionally.

Tom Wark

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:52:47 -0600

HB 429 is not quite good for everyone, particularly consumers. Consider: 1. Consumers in Illinois may no longer buy ANY wine from out of state wine stores, something they have been able to do now for 15 years. 2. 1000s of wines will no longer be accessible to Illinois consumers because IL distributors do not provide them to in-state retailers. HB 429 is decidedly unconstitutional and should be challenged in court the moment the governor signs it...if he does. While it allows IN-state wineries to sell and ship wine to IL consumers, it prohibits out-of-state retailers to sell and ship wine to IL consumers. The Granholm decision was clear: Allow me to quote: "This Court has long held that, in all but the narrowest circumstances, state laws violate the Commerce Clause if they mandate ‘differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests that benefits the former and burdens the latter’… States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses." Clearly, by prohibiting in-state wine stores the ability to ship to IL residents but prohibiting out-of-state retailers from doing the the same the state of IL is mandating "differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests that benefits the former and burdens latter." Who is benefiting? The IL alcohol distributors. IL retailers may ONLY buy wines from IL distributors. However, when a consumer purchases a wine from an out-of-state retailer that's a bottle of wine that did not go through the IL wholesalers' hands and give them a profit. HB 429 is a blatant and cynical law that is protectionist at its core and throws IL consumers under the bus.