Florida restaurants that want to sell beer, wine and liquor–whether at a restaurant bar or to seated customers–must have a 4COP-SFS (formerly known as 4COP-SRX) license issued by the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco (ABT) pursuant to Florida Statutes Section 561.20(2)(a)4. Most recently, this law was updated by Florida Law 2023-65, effective July 1, 2023. To get...
Continue ReadingAlcoholic beverage companies operating in Florida must apply for and maintain several federal, state and local government licenses and permits. One of the most common is the business tax receipt (BTR). Florida Counties and Cities Require BTRs for Nearly All Businesses The Florida Statutes generally authorizes counties and cities to levy a business tax for the privilege of engaging...
Continue ReadingApplicants for a Florida alcoholic beverage license–whether a manufacturing, distribution, or retail vendor license–can get a Temporary Initial License. What is it? What is a Temporary Initial License? A Temporary Initial License allows alcoholic beverage companies to get an alcoholic beverage license more quickly. As soon as the Temporary Initial License is issued, the licenseholder can immediately begin the...
Continue ReadingBrewdog Brewing Asked About a Flaw in the Florida Beer Franchise Law In 2020, Brewdog Brewing Company LLC (“Brewdog”) asked the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (ABT) what the word “successor” means as used in the Florida Beer Franchise Law, Florida Statutes Section 563.022(16). At stake was whether would be bound to the distribution agreements that had...
Continue ReadingThere’s more to life than alcohol–there’s food and non-alcoholic beverages too. Florida breweries, wineries, and distilleries way want to expand their manufacturing to include non-alcoholic beverages. For example, they may want to product bottled or canned water. Non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits are also becoming increasingly popular. In addition, distributors that mostly deal in alcoholic products may want to...
Continue ReadingThree Key Record Types Florida alcoholic beverage suppliers–manufacturers, broker-sales agents, importers, and exporters–and distributors are required to meet specific recordkeeping requirements under Florida law and regulations. For most businesses, the simplest way to meet the recordkeeping requirement is to make sure your records can answer three questions at any time: A practical way to do that is to keep...
Continue ReadingThe Florida Beverage Law and related regulations contain no specific requirements concerning restrictive territories or any other contractual terms concerning wine and distilled spirit products. For beer and malt beverage products, however, the Florida Beverage Law, requires exclusive sales territories for beer and malt beverage products (collectively referred to here as “beer”). Since 1988, beer may be sold by...
Continue ReadingThe Florida ABT’s 1998 Declaratory Statement tells that licensed alcoholic beverage retailers can pay manufacturers for the use of their trademark under certain terms. Friday’s Wanted to Create the Jack Daniel’s Grill In Declaratory Statement 98-01, the ABT was asked whether Friday’s Hospitality Worldwide Inc. (“Friday’s”, operators of the same restaurant chain at the time), a alcoholic beverage vendor,...
Continue ReadingThis article is Part 2 of our two-part series on the termination of beer franchise rights in Florida. For Part 1, see Termination of Florida Beer Distribution Agreements. Florida’s Beer Franchise Statute (Fla. Stat. s. 563.022) recognizes that a Florida distributor acquires a valuable franchise right when it enters into a distribution agreement with a beer suppler (whether brewery...
Continue ReadingThis article is Part 1 of our two-part series on the termination of beer franchise rights in Florida. For Part 2, see Florida Distribution Agreements: Buyouts and Buybacks. Florida’s Beer Franchise Statute (Fla. Stat. s. 563.022) puts severe controls on the contractual relationship between beer suppliers and beer distributors. Implicit to these controls is recognition of the beer franchise–a...
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