URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED!

Every brewery in the Commonwealth of PA can benefit from having more rights over their brand, and you as the consumer can play a critical role in this advocacy effort. Right now, the local brewery you love to go to, and all breweries across the Commonwealth need your help. There are ongoing negotiations in Harrisburg that will have a significant impact on craft beer in Pennsylvania.

Loyal beer fans can join breweries in fighting for better rights with distribution laws, that will help these businesses grow, and be a part of the economic recovery.

Take two quick minutes to click this link, scroll to PA Consumers Support PA Breweries and click again, enter your name and address, and have a letter sent to your State Senator asking for support of legislation to modernize franchise laws in Pennsylvania. The cosponsor memo from Senator Laughlin can be found here.

This legislation would provide a more equitable playing field for manufacturers entering the three-tier system by prohibiting any future contract from being evergreen (LCB made this ruling many years ago that these contracts exist in perpetuity and can only be negated through legal means, the cost of which 99% of brewers could not incur).

The distribution contracts would have specific termination dates, allowing for renegotiating throughout the life of the contract. This legislation would also provide the manufacturer with the right to buy out of an existing contract for fair market value, determined by a neutral arbiter, provided that the manufacturer’s brand is not more than 20 percent of the wholesalers’ business. This protects both parties by ensuring that the manufacturer can leave a one-sided partnership but only through fair compensation to the wholesaler for the time and resources it invested in the brand.

Finally, in exchange for these protections, the wholesaler would receive franchise protections for low Alcohol by Volume (ABV) products like canned cocktails, the largest growing SKU in beverage alcohol. These products fit more into the customer profile or a beer consumer based on ABV and should be sold where beer is sold, not to mention that the state store system is restricted by space to handle this growth market.

If you have questions on this policy proposal, please contact the Brewers of Pennsylvania at [email protected].