Archive for the ‘Legal Issues’ Category
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
It has been said that "The first step toward wisdom is asking questions". This has always made sense to me. And I'm going to suggest that the tactic be investigated by the Michigan Attorney General's office.
Recently the Michigan Attorney General announced they would appeal the Michigan Federal District Court ruling ...
Posted in State Laws, Legal Issues | 6 Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
A good amount of attention is being shown in the media toward Tuesday's Michigan Federal Court decision concerning out-of-state retailer to consumer shipping in that state. As you may recall from yesterday's post at Wine Without Borders, Judge Hood in Michigan ruled Michigan's discriminatory, anti-consumer law was unconstitutional. She enjoined ...
Posted in State Laws, Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
There is no other way to describe the October 1, 2008 decision in the Michigan case of Siesta Village Market v. Granholm as anything other than a complete victory for consumers, free trade advocates and constitutionalism. Judge Donna Hood ruled that Michigan's discriminatory laws that allow Michigan wine lovers to ...
Posted in State Laws, Legal Issues | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
When you spend enough time watching wine politics play out, it becomes a real necessity to be able to laugh...otherwise you'll spend your time at the chiropractor from shaking your head back and forth in dismay.The wine politics playing out in Oklahoma are both hilarious as well as depressing.
This November, ...
Posted in State Laws, Three Tier System, Legal Issues | 3 Comments »
Friday, August 8th, 2008
Since 2005 when Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich declared it so, September is Illinois Wine Month in that state. That month is coming up and the outstanding Illinois wine industry will get some well deserved recognition. The industry has come a tremendous distance in the past 20 years producing outstanding wines ...
Posted in State Laws, Three Tier System, Legal Issues | No Comments »
Monday, July 21st, 2008
In the comment section of a the previous post on the current state of wine shipping in Texas, Josh made a simple request:
"I wish you would also publish information on how consumers can fight against this kind of industry abuse. Where can we donate money? Who are the politicians in ...
Posted in Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | 2 Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2008
For two years since Specialty Wine Retailers Association opened its lawsuit against the state of Texas challenging the constitutionality of its ban against out-of-state retailer shipping to Texans, the state has remained open to shippers. The mechanism by which consumers were still able to procure wines from out-of-state retailers was ...
Posted in State Laws, Three Tier System, Legal Issues | 9 Comments »
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Maybe the motto should be: "Cogitate before you legislate".
This is the lesson that a number of people might want to take away from bad direct shipping legislation in California and Illinois that brought with it unintended consequences.
ILLINOIS RETAILERS
In the case of Illinois, that state's recent ban on out of state ...
Posted in State Laws, Legal Issues | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
HOW ILLINOIS WINE LOVERS GOT SCREWED
In October 2007, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed HB 429 into law. Taking effect June 1, 2008, the new law prohibited Illinois consumers from buying and having shipped to them wine from out-of-state wine merchants and on-line wine stores. The new law stripped consumers of ...
Posted in Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
It should be clear to all those that think about the impact of the various state laws meant to discriminate against retailer wine shipping that on another level these laws disproportionately hurt imported brands.
In a number of states consumers may have wine shipped to them from American wineries across the ...
Posted in State Laws, Legal Issues | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport that the state of Maine may not required a common carrier (FedEX, UPS, etc) to obtain a signature from someone to whom cigarettes are being delivered. The court reasoned that such a state requirement ran afoul of ...
Posted in Legal Issues | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
"The world sees the Internet as their friend, they don’t see the danger in it. I guarantee you, if I gave my daughter a gift card or a credit card tomorrow she could order a bottle of vodka on the Internet and get it three days later. They don’t see ...
Posted in Three Tier System, Legal Issues | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Many readers of this blog will have already become familiar with the "Wine.com Episode" of recent weeks. How could you not be. Wine.com's concern with the legality of much shipping of wine into Washington and its subsequent in-house stings of various retailers followed up by their visit to the Washington ...
Posted in Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
While most wine retailers that offer their stock on line explain what states they will ship to, few of them explain why they won't ship to certain states. And if they explain, it is usually cursory note that shipping wine is prohibited by law in X.
It would do the consumer ...
Posted in Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | 11 Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Regarding the Michigan Judge's ruling that Granholm v. Heald and the principle of non-discrimination applies to retailers as well as wineries, a white paper to this point was written by Judge Ken Starr, Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law, and Kathleen Sullivan of Stanford Law School.
For those of you ...
Posted in SWRA Issues, Legal Issues | No Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
A District Judge in Michigan last week Michigan Ruling in a case there that exactly mirrors SWRA's position on the issue of Retailer-To-Consumer shipping and the Granholm V. Heald 2005 Supreme Court decision.
Since that groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling, distributors across the country, as well as some State officials, have been ...
Posted in Legal Issues | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
After searching high and low for that bottle of Australian Chardonnay you tasted when last in Australia, you find it. A wine merchant located outside your state who has an eclectic taste in Chards lists it on their website. Hallelujah! Upon clicking a few times you are ready to order ...
Posted in Wine Blogging, SWRA Issues, Shipping Legislation, Legal Issues | 7 Comments »