“Every bottle of wine that is sold into Maine that circumvents Maine distributors and our Maine retail partners must be considered a direct threat to Maine jobs and the Maine economy,” Mike Barriault, president, Central Distributors, Lewiston, Md., told lawmakers.
The Maine Senate Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee is considering a bill to allow out-of-state retailers to ship direct to Maine consumers. It would, State Sen. Dave Miramant (D), the prime sponsor, said, “expand options for obtaining the types of wine they choose they choose while helping Maine businesses to open their markets.
The Maine Beer & Wine Distributors Association says the bill would significantly expand “the wine direct to consumer shipping law by allowing any out-of-state retailers and wholesalers to apply for a direct shipper permit and ship wine direct to Maine consumers, bypassing the local licensees.”
And Gregg Mineo, director of the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages & Lottery Operations, told the panel that “current law provides almost unlimited access to Maine consumers for wine sourced directly from in and out-of-state suppliers.”
“It is inconsistent for Maine to be a control state, and at the same time cleave to the notion that we should be guided by the principles of free enterprise, namely that the consumer can get what they want when they want it,” said attorney Newell Augur, representing RSVP Discount Beverages, which is opposed to Miramant’s measure.