California SB 1273

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. Existing law, known as tied-house restrictions, generally prohibits a manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer's agent, rectifier, California winegrower's agent, distiller, bottler, importer, and wholesaler, and any officer, director, or agent of any of those persons, from giving or lending money or a thing of value to a person operating, owning, or maintaining any on-sale premises where alcoholic beverages are sold. Existing law provides certain exceptions to this prohibition if specified requirements are met. Existing law authorizes certain licensees or their representatives to conduct or participate in certain instruction or instructional events, as specified, if specified conditions are met. In this regard, specified information, pictures, illustrations, and depictions of the retailer's premises, personnel, and customers may be listed in advertisements for the event if the pictures, illustrations, or depictions are relatively inconspicuous in relation to the advertisement as a whole and video is not permitted. This bill would make changes to the provisions related to advertising for the events described in the above paragraph, including, among other things, authorizing the advertisement to include videos of the retailer's premises, personnel, and customers and contain or consist of pictures, illustrations, videos, and graphical depictions. The bill would prohibit videos of the retailer's premises, personnel, and customers from being longer than 60 seconds in duration. The bill would remove the requirement that the specified information and any pictures, illustrations, or depictions be relatively inconspicuous in relation to the advertisement as a whole. Existing law authorizes specified information of a winegrower, wine importer, or winegrower's agent licensee, the brand names of wine being featured, and the time, date, location, and other identifying information of a wine promotional lecture at retail premises to be listed in advance of the event in an advertisement of the off-sale or on-sale retail licensee. This bill would also authorize the advertisement to include pictures, illustrations, videos, and depictions of the winegrower, wine importer, or winegrower's agent licensee and would authorize the advertisement to contain or consist of pictures, illustrations, videos, or graphical depictions. Existing law authorizes a licenseholder or on-sale retail licensee to advertise an instructional tasting event to the general public, and specifies that permitted advertisements include flyers, newspaper ads, internet communications, and interior signage. This bill would instead authorize a licenseholder or on-sale retail licensee to advertise an instructional tasting event, and would remove the provision that specifies what advertisements are permitted.