UPDATE FOR CONSTITUENTS INTERESTED IN WINE LEGISLATION

Special to juliehamos.org
July 11, 2006

Many of you wrote or e-mailed during the spring legislative session to express concerns over pending legislation, SB 2180, that potentially would restrict your ability to purchase wine over the Internet or from out-of-state wineries.

I received over 125 letters and e-mail messages from constituents in opposition to SB 2180. After hearing your initial concerns, I asked for more detailed information from you about your wine purchasing habits. Although this is rarely done by legislators, I was able to learn directly from you and now understand nuances of the legislation that had not been fully explored or debated.

From you I learned that Illinois residents are indeed purchasing wine via the internet – an important tool of commerce in our modern era. These internet sites are organized as different business models: some through wineries, but others through retail stores, brokers, “wine education companies” and likely in other ways as well. These internet businesses strictly enforce age restrictions, so that issue is not the problem as had been suggested.

As I now understand the proposed wine legislation, out-of-state wineries would be able to seek “direct wine shipper's” licenses and ship to Illinois consumers. Internet sites or “wine clubs” organized by these wineries likewise would be able to seek these licenses. However, other types of internet-based wine purchases (not connected to wineries) would be illegal – in effect undermining the advantages of Internet technology in the 21 st century. Accordingly, constituents would either be restricted in their consumer choices or the practice would continue, but illegally and under the table.

On behalf of consumers, I urged the sponsors and the Speaker to amend the legislation to allow direct wine shipper's licenses to be issued to other types of businesses – or specifically internet-based businesses – in addition to wineries. The legislation was not discussed or debated in the House during the spring legislative session, and no vote has been taken.

I thought you would be interested in this update. Please know that I am championing this issue on your behalf. We may need active statewide consumer involvement if the issue is not resolved in the future. Please feel free to call me at 847-424-9898 or email me at Julie@juliehamos.org with your comments and suggestions. Thank you again for your assistance in helping me to become a more informed policy-maker on this issue.