Last year, Washington State relaxed some of its restrictive alcoholic beverage laws as a result of a couple of comprehensive bills that passed the legislature (SB 5834 and HB 2040). The mandatory minimum markups between suppliers and wholesalers and between wholesalers and retailers are now history. Retailers can now pay suppliers using electronic funds transfers if they want to. Price posting (which required beer and wine suppliers and distributors to file their product prices with the state and hold those prices for 30 days) was officially abolished.

Another change in the law that has more significance than it might appear to on the surface is the expansion of the state law’s definition of “Authorized Representative.” First, some definitions are in order: a Certificate of Approval is the Washington license given to a U.S. winery or brewery located outside of Washington that enables it to ship its products to a Washington importer or distributor. An “Authorized Representative” is an entity located outside of Washington but in the U.S. that is appointed by a Certificate of Approval (COA) holder to market and sell the COA holder’s products into the state of Washington through the three-tier system.

Before last July, Washington made it very hard for out of state wineries and breweries to sell their products into Washington through marketing agents, unless they wanted to give over all of their brands to the marketing agent.

That’s because, through a quirk in Washington law whose origins aren’t very clear, there could be only one source (i.e. either one Certificate of Approval license holder, or one Authorized Representative) for an out of state winery or brewery’s products. For example, if you were a winery that produces Brand A and Brand B, and you have been selling your Brand A to a Washington importer, you couldn’t appoint an Authorized Representative to market and sell your Brand B in Washington.

That all changed on July 26, 2009. As part of the “omnibus bill” and other sweeping legislative changes that took place last year in Washington, the definition of Authorized Representative was amended to remove the exclusivity portion that had been so problematic. As a result of the change to RCW 66.04.010(2), a Certificate of Approval holder can now divide up its brands, selling some itself and using one or more Authorized Representatives to market and sell different ones, if it wants. The state does require the producer to have written agreements with each of its Authorized Representatives, and there can be only one Authorized Representative per brand, but even with these restrictions, this one seemingly minor change in the law gives producers a lot more control and flexibility over how they market their products in Washington.

-Sara Mann, Beverage Industry Attorney

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Late yesterday the Kansas ABC posted their applications for direct shipping on their website.  Wine producers across the country can now apply for permission to direct ship wine to Kansas consumers effective July 1, 2009.

Kansas SB 212 was signed into law by Governor Kathleen Sebelius on April 10. Wineries interested in avoiding the hassle of the application process can purchase the license at www.easywinelicensing.com.

Licensed wineries will be able to ship up to 12 cases of wine per year to Kansas residents. To obtain a Kansas direct shipping license, wineries must pay a $50 license fee, a $50 registration fee, and post a $750 bond.

Tennessee will also open for direct shipping on July 1, although the paperwork has not yet been finalized.  Tennessee’s license is available for pre-order pending the state’s posting.

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With every blog post, we research the facts and analyze the data to provide you with an in-depth look of the issues at hand. Though our staff hears news daily and keeps track of industry events and happenings, not all this information makes its way to the blog.

We do, however, post updates, news stories, articles and interesting blog posts as we come across them. Follow @winecompliance on twitter to receive the latest wine compliance news, information, and tips on a more frequent basis.

Additionally, if you are interested in knowing what’s going on at ShipCompliant, staying up-to-date with the multiple events we put on throughout the year, and receiving the latest industry news, follow our new @shipcompliant account on twitter.

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With Kansas now due to open for direct shipping on July 1st, and legislation pending in Florida and Tennessee that may change direct shipping laws, the direct shipping environment is shifting faster than usual.

You will not want to miss a state-by-state review of legislative updates from Steve Gross, the Wine Institute’s Director of State Relations during ShipCompliant’s 4th annual Direct Shipping Seminar and Users Conference. The event will take place on Thursday, June 11 at the Napa Valley Marriott.

Hear from Steve Gross and other distinguished speakers as they address important direct shipping updates including a state-by-state review, wine-industry market analysis and strategic direct-to-consumer marketing. Confirmed speakers include:

• W. Curtis Coleburn, COO, Virginia ABC
• Steve Gross, Director of State Relations, Wine Institute
• Q&A session with Jeff Carroll, VP Compliance, ShipCompliant
• Additional speakers to be announced soon…

This conference sells out quickly so register online today to guarantee your spot, or sign up to receive email alerts on other upcoming events.

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This is a quick reminder that we will hold an online direct shipping seminar for wineries tomorrow (October 16th) at 10am PT. Over 550 people have registered for this event so far. Click the button below to register for this FREE event.

October 16th Online Direct Shipping Seminar

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When we make a post here on the ShipCompliant blog, we take the time to really understand an issue, research the facts involved, and make a substantive post that adds value to the issue that we are discussing. However, the ShipCompliant research team hears news and information from many different sources every day that may not necessarily end up as the subject of a post on this blog. Because of this, we recently started posting updates on Twitter to give you a heads up about articles or blog posts that we think are interesting in the world of wine compliance.

If you’re interested in learning more about wine compliance, please follow winecompliance on twitter! If you don’t yet have an account on twitter, we also added a sidebar widget that lists the five most recent updates on the bottom right of this page ->

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During the hot summer months, wine shipping practically grinds to a halt due to high temperatures and an inability to navigate the whims of mother nature.

To address this problem, ShipCompliant has developed an innovative free temperature forecasting tool that filters your order files by temperature within the destination zip code. Up until this point, wine shippers were forced to spend hours manually researching shipping conditions, or to simply shut entire states down for months at a time.

The tool is a cinch to use. Simply follow these steps:

1. Visit ShipCompliant.com and click on Free Tools
2. Choose your temperature threshold: The temperature above which you do not feel comfortable shipping your wine
3. Select an excel or CSV file containing wine shipments
4. Tell us which column contains the destination zip code
5. Download the list of orders whose destinations are under the temperature threshold
6. OR download the list of all orders with corresponding temperature forecasts for the next 5 days

We look forward to hearing your feedback on this new addition to the ShipCompliant tool set. Please let us know how best to improve it. Now give it a try!

Click here to try out the ShipCompliant Temperature Tool

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ShipCompliant will be participating in two events this month. If you are in the area, please try to attend!

Women for WineSense
Professional Members Only – Real Life Compliance Solutions

This event is meant to supplement the full-day TTB seminars occurring in the area at the same time. A legal overview will be provided by Susan Cagann, Special Counsel, Farella Braun + Martel. She will cover state and federal trade practice law along with legal issues concerning advertising, marketing and distributing wine.

If you are interested in attending the event or joining their Professional Members group, please send WineSense an email.

Christina Carr, Marketing Manager at Gundlach Bundschu will host the marketing panel consisting of ShipCompliant and New Vine Logistics presidents, Jason Eckenroth and Katie Hoertkorn. The companies will review best practices and provide actionable advice on direct shipping compliance.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 23 — 530-8PM
WHAT: Real-life Compliance solutions – legal and marketing.
TASTE: Our program will be accompanied by fine Mondavi wines paired with tasty hors d’oeuvres.
WHERE: Robert Mondavi Winery, Highway 29, Napa
COST: $20 Professional members, $35 invited non-members

Wine 2.0 Spring Fling
ShipCompliant’s Software as a Service (Saas) approach of enabling any technology system to integrate our best of breed compliance web services is well received among Wine 2.0 companies. Join the Wine 2.0 crowd at Crushpad on April 24th and meet some of our staff in person. They expect more than 200 attendees to enjoy an evening of great wines at Crushpad’s new urban winery location.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

EVENT SPECIFICS
WHEN:
Thursday
April 24th
7pm – 10pm

WHERE:
Crushpad, Inc.
2573 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
DIRECTIONS

CONTACT:
415-864-4232

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Direct to Consumer Symposium
May 1-2, 2008
Meritage Resort, Napa, CA
Proceeds to Benefit Coalition for Free Trade and Free the Grapes!
Register here

Sessions will include:

• Who Is Buying? Consumer Research Findings
• Starting a Winning Direct Marketing Program
• Direct to Consumer Legislation and Enforcement
• Using Food & Wine Marketing to Increase Tasting Room Traffic
• Strategies & Best Practices to Grow Direct to Consumer Sales
• Litigation Updates from Coalition for Free Trade
• Start Up/Start Over – Lessons from the Winery Trenches
• The Down & Dirty on Compliance
• Using Telemarketing for Customer Service and Profit
• Strategies and Tactics to Increase Your Mailing List
• A State by State Shipping Update
• Grow Your Wine Club to 5,000 Members & Beyond

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