A federal lawsuit was filed Monday by the Coalition for Free Trade in Licensed Beverages (CFTLB) challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia state law that prohibits out-of-state firms from selling wines directly in Virginia.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court, Richmond, VA, against the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and its commissioners. It alleges that the law violates the Interstate Commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, discriminates against out-of-state businesses and “deprives adults of their right to purchase from the supplier of their choice.”
If the law is overturned, it could result in a renewed push by the nation’s wine industry for federal legislation allowing wines to be sent by mail to consumers while pre-empting laws similar to Virginia’s in 33 other states. Eight states make it a felony for out-of-state wineries and other businesses to ship directly to consumers.
Several years ago the industry failed to win Congressional support for legislation that would have repealed a Prohibition Era ban on wines and other liquors being sent through the mail. Existing federal law only permits those beverages to be sent to consumers by private carrier, such as United Parcel Service, or other privately operated shipping companies.
Attorney Matthew Hale, who filed the CFTLB’s suit on behalf of two Virginians who were unable to receive wine orders from vintners in California, Oregon and Texas, said Virginia’s prohibition against anyone other than an in-state middle-man from selling wine to consumers was “just plain wrong.”
It “discourages businesses, including small family owned wineries located in 48 states, from reaching their consumers and participating in the national market place,” he added.
While it is not directly involved in the lawsuit, the Direct Marketing Association “will be following it very closely,” said Jerry Cerasale, its senior vice president, government affairs.
Saying that the DMA “wants to keep remote marketing as open as possible, there might be a way that we can look at state laws to try and work something out to keep direct marketers of wines and other liquors, in compliance with those laws.”
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