Gray Robinson

GrayRobinson Alcohol Law Team: Why the Heck Do They Need My Fingerprints?!

by Beth Goldberg in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted March 21, 2024

Why state regulators require fingerprints, personal questionnaires, and detailed financial disclosures before issuing alcohol beverage licenses The alcohol beverage business is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. A wide variety of enterprises engage in the retail sale of alcohol beverages, including hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, golf courses, fraternal organizations, private clubs, ...

National Overview of Server Ages and Function

by Gray Robinson in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted May 31, 2022

We all know that the legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one and over. But what about the legal serving age? In today’s environment where COVID and even post-COVID labor shortages are a problem, a factor on-premises retailers and their managers need to consider is the age and even the combination of ages ...

Taste, Toast, Zoom: Virtual Tastings, Mixology Classes, and Experiential Events

by Gray Robinson in Coronavirus (COVID-19), Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted December 29, 2020

Virtual Alcohol Tastings and Mixology Classes: Virtual alcohol tastings and mixology classes are not an entirely new concept; however, they have gained popularity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and necessity due to local and state orders. Virtual tastings and mixology classes come in the form of a recorded or live online guided sampling ...

Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew About My Liquor Licensed Premises

by Elizabeth DeConti in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted August 27, 2020

Today’s category is…..The Top Ten Things I wish I knew about my Liquor Licensed Premises! #10: I need to submit an update to the governing licensing authorities when I restructure, change an officer, or change a d/b/a name. Disclosures on licensing applications should be accurate and current, so that the regulating authority has a record ...

TTB Clarifies Trade Practice Enforcement for COVID-19-Related Activities

by Valerie Haber in Coronavirus (COVID-19), Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted June 13, 2020

The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (“TTB”) published a May 8, 2020 Industry Circular #2020-3 titled, “Trade Practice Enforcement During COVID-19 Pandemic”, which provides helpful insight into the agency’s current stance on various trade practice issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Industry Circular addresses five main categories of activity: Product Returns; Extension ...

COVID-19’s Impact On Extensions of Credit and Returns in the Alcohol Beverage Industry

by Elizabeth DeConti in Coronavirus (COVID-19), Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted March 28, 2020

The ripple effects of governmental response to COVID-19 are being felt in all tiers of the alcohol beverage industry. State and local orders closing restaurants, bars, and other on-premises retailers of alcoholic beverages have left many retailers trying to find creative ways to recover their losses. One solution to recover cash and prevent waste is ...

State & Federal Alcohol Compliance Update: TTB Enforcement and Related Matters

by Elizabeth DeConti in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted October 24, 2019

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is the federal agency with oversight of alcohol beverage sales, marketing, and distribution. Every U.S. state has a companion state-level agency to TTB. In recent months, TTB has, thanks to a generous allocation in the federal budget, embarked on a rigorous trade practice investigation ...

Best Practices in Trade Practices

by Valerie Haber in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted June 11, 2019

Introduction After the Prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment, a complex web of alcohol beverage laws created a “three-tier system” in which independence must exist between alcohol beverage manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. The ways in which these three tiers can interact is strictly controlled by federal and state laws. Armed with an increased budget ...

Liquor Licensing For Hotel & Restaurant Acquisitions

by Elizabeth DeConti in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted December 27, 2018

You are the General Counsel or the outside counsel to a hotel or restaurant brand. Your client informs you that the company intends to purchase multiple units of additional properties in several different states. Your head spins, full of questions. Will it be an asset sale or stock purchase? Will we retain the employees? Will ...

Alcohol Advertising in the Digital Age

by Elizabeth DeConti in Food & Beverage, Legal, Technology. Posted July 19, 2018

Introduction Suppliers and retailers of alcoholic beverages advertise their respective products and offerings in a wide variety of digital outlets. Questions arise as to how the complex legal landscape of alcohol regulation applies in these digital spaces. Advertising media include social network services (e.g., Facebook), video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), blogs, and smartphone applications. In ...