The world of home delivery services for alcohol has been growing steadily. One South Florida based delivery service, Klink, has recently been acquired by delivery.com, a delivery service company based in New York that delivers food, groceries, laundry, other products, and now alcohol. Klink, founded in 2013, was one of the earlier providers of on-demand alcohol deliveries direct to consumers. The company which operates on both the iOs and Android platforms is available in Miami, Washington DC, and Dallas. Initially the startup began at the University of Central Florida when two of the founders were students there. The initial plan was to target college campuses, but Klink quickly changed its strategy and started targeting larger metropolitan centers. Delivery.com has been looking to expand into the same markets as Klink and offer alcohol delivery service as a compliment to its other available delivery items and services. Jeffrey Nadel, CEO of Klink who spoke with the Miami Herald said, “we are confident this will be a huge value-add for both our customers – who will be able to order food along with their beer, wine and spirits purchases – and our retail partners, who will have access to a wealth of new customers.” Nadel added, K”link customers have been clamoring for an offering that combines booze and food almost since Klink’s launch.” The transition and merging of both companies will be completed in the coming weeks. The exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed. By: Oren Cytrynbaum  

On April 1, the new Oregon Bottle Bill went into effect. House Bill 2746 was signed by Governor Kate Brown during the 2017 regular session of the Oregon State Legislature.   The bill increases bottle deposit refunds from 5 cents to 10 cents. In accordance with Oregon Law, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission was required to evaluate state-wide redemption data for each of the two previous calendar years to determine if the number of beverage containers returned for the refund value was less than 80% of the total number of beverage containers that were sold in Oregon.  Because the redemption rates for 2014 and 2015 were below 80%, ORS 459A.705 requires the refund value to increase to 10 cents.   The change allows a grace period for containers labeled with OR 10¢ to be phased onto store shelves through September 30, 2018.  The refund value will be 10¢ regardless of the amount shown on the container.  Currently, beverages included are water, beer, and soft drinks. Only containers for these beverages in sizes of three liters or less are included and have a refund value.   Hard cider, juice, tea, coffee, coconut water, non-alcoholic kombucha are not currently covered under the Oregon Bottle Bill, but will be effective January 1, 2018 and will be limited to container sizes of 4 ounces to 1.5 liters. However, if a business charges the deposit on one of these items, that business must redeem the container. Containers of alcoholic kombucha (0.5% or more alcohol by volume)…

Last month the New York State Liquor Authority (“NYSLA”) took under review the issue of “Bill and Hold” invoicing and storage between wholesalers and retailers. The practice of Bill and Hold is when a licensed wholesaler sells product to a licensed retailer without the product being delivered to the retailer’s premises at the time of sale and instead can be stored at the wholesaler’s licensed premise or warehouse on behalf of the retailer.   In order for a wholesaler and retailer to permissibly facilitate a Bill and Hold sale, it must follow the rules outlined under Advisory 2017-1. The advisory goes into detail to explain all the necessary requirements, which include but are not limited to:  All retailers must be offered the Bill and Hold method of sale and not just specific retailers by the choice of the wholesaler. The wholesaler is also under no requirement to offer a Bill and Hold sales option. The wholesaler is not required to offer all of its products for sale under Bill and Hold.  Sales must be invoiced as of the date the retailer places the order and such date shall be considered the date of delivery for determining the final payment date for sales made on credit.  All products purchased through this sale must be stored at the wholesaler’s licensed premises or permitted warehouse.  The wholesaler must charge a market rate for storage even if it’s just for a single day. Market rate is determined by calculating an average…