Alcoholic beverages: tied-house restrictions.

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 licensees, from giving or lending money or a thing of value to a person operating, owning, or maintaining premises where alcoholic beverages are sold. Existing law creates various exceptions to tied-house restrictions, including permitting a licensee to perform services for off-sale licensees by rotating the brand or brands that are owned or sold by the licensee performing the service on shelves and in refrigerated boxes, as specified. Existing law limits this exception by not authorizing removal of brands, except beer. Existing law also creates a tied-house restriction exception for rearranging brands, including on floor displays, among other actions, as specified, but limits this exception by not authorizing stocking permanent shelves and fixtures for regular inventory replacement, except beer. This bill, in connection with the exceptions to tied-house restrictions described above, would extend the exceptions to limitations that are provided to beer to apply also to brands of distilled spirits and wine in single-serve containers, as defined, that are intended to be consumed without mixing. The bill would also make technical and conforming changes. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.