HB445 Alabama 2020 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Terri CollinsRepresentative

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2020

Title

Alcoholic beverages, to require licensed importers and manufacturers of wine to enter into exclusive franchise agreements with wholesalers, Secs. 28-8A-1 to 28-8A-11, inclusive, added.

Summary

HB445 would create a new wine franchise regime in Alabama that requires licensed wine suppliers to designate exclusive sales territories and enter into territory-based franchise agreements with wholesalers, retroactive to 2019, and to regulate those relationships through new rules and remedies.

What This Bill Does

It adds Chapter 8A to Title 28 to regulate how wine suppliers and wholesalers interact, requiring suppliers to designate sales territories for each brand and to enter into exclusive franchise agreements with wholesalers for those territories. It sets rules for what these agreements can include or change, including how they can be modified, terminated, canceled, or renewed, and requires written notices and good-faith standards. It also expands the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board’s duties to enforce these provisions and provides remedies such as damages, arbitration, and injunctive relief for disputes, while preserving existing local wine franchise laws in certain counties.

Who It Affects

• Wine suppliers (manufacturers/importers licensed by the ABC Board) would be required to designate exclusive sales territories for their brands and enter into written, territory-based franchise agreements with wholesalers.
• Wholesalers licensed by the ABC Board would obtain exclusive rights within designated territories and be subject to the terms, restrictions, and dispute-resolution provisions of the new franchise framework.
• The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board would have expanded duties to administer, regulate, and enforce the new Chapter 8A requirements across counties, including counties without local regulation.

Key Provisions

• Creates Chapter 8A in Title 28 to regulate wine supplier-wholesaler franchising, requiring exclusive sales territories and written agreements, retroactive to agreements entered before, on, or after December 31, 2019.
• Defines key terms (agreement, territory, supplier, wholesaler, designated member, etc.) and sets standards for how franchise relationships operate and can be modified or terminated.
• Requires suppliers to grant exclusive sales territories for each brand and to provide written agreements detailing these territories; allows temporary service arrangements of up to 90 days under certain conditions.
• Prohibits suppliers from practices such as price fixing, selling outside designated territories, coercing wholesalers, or pressuring for unwanted brand purchases, and outlines other supplier prohibitions and conditions.
• Provides that wholesalers must operate within their designated territories, and outlines rules for temporary interruptions and service continuity.
• Sets conditions for amendments, terminations, cancellations, nonrenewals, and discontinements, including good-faith requirements, 60-day notice, specified grounds for immediate termination, and a process for disputed terminations.
• Addresses transfers of wholesaler businesses, including required notices, designated-member transfers, and rules for supplier approval or disapproval of non-designated transfers.
• Requires compensation for diminished value of a wholesaler’s business when a supplier acts improperly, with an arbitration process to determine amounts and shared arbitration costs.
• Establishes standards of conduct penalties, including potential damages (actual, punitive, and attorney fees) for bad-faith actions by suppliers or wholesalers, along with injunctive relief available to either party.
• Allows declaratory judgments and venue for disputes, and keeps remedies nonexclusive, preserving existing rights and actions outside the new framework.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Alcoholic Beverage Control Board