Illinois Consumer Group Stands Up For Wine Lovers

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I just got the notice of this:

—Specialty Wine Retailers Supports Efforts by Illinois Consumers to Address Unfair Wine Laws—

With the founding of the Illinois Wine Consumer Coalition (http://www.illinoiswineconsumers.org), that state’s consumers are finally fighting back against powerful interests that have taken control of the rules and regulations of Illinois concerning consumer access to wine. The Specialty Wine Retailers Association congratulates Illinois consumers for organizing and becoming part of a legislative process that has degenerated into an exercise in protectionism for the state’s powerful alcohol wholesaler lobby. It is only by consumer involvement that the nature of the process can be changed.

Passed by the Illinois legislature and signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2007, HB 429 stripped Illinois consumers of their right to purchase wine from out-of-state wine stores, Internet wine stores, wine auction houses and non-winery wine clubs. During the negotiations that led to the law, no consumers were consulted. The result was that Illinois consumers lost access to the vast majority of wines available in the American marketplace for the sake of protecting Illinois wholesalers from competition.

Since 2002, Illinois alcohol wholesalers contributed $563,000 to Governor Blagojevich’s campaigns. In October 2007, Governor Blagojevich signed into law the anti-consumer, wholesaler-protecting bill (HB 429) that forced Illinois consumers to purchase most wines only from in-state wholesaler-serviced wine stores in Illinois.

Governor Blagojevich Proclaimed July 10, 2008 Beer Distributor Day in Illlinois. Since 2002 the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois have donated over $96,000 to Governor Blagojevich’s campaigns.

“Specialty Wine Retailers Association (SWRA) is very proud of Illinois consumers for organizing to try to take back their ability to access the wines they want and to fight special interest legisltion,” said Tom Wark, Executive Director of SWRA. “SWRA fully supports consumer involvement in wine shipping issues as well as a return to well regulated consumer access to wine in Illinois.”

The Specialty Wine Retailers Association is a national group that advocates fair, non-discriminatory and well-regulated direct shipment of wine. For more information about SWRA see http://www.specialtywineretailers.org .

For more information go visit the IWCC site.

This entry was posted on January 21, 2009 at 12:21 pm and is filed under IWCC, state control of wine industry, SWRA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.