Are you ready for Illinois’s new of value regulations for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of beer, wine, and spirits?

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission has adopted new regulations governing and addressing of value standards for the beer, wine, and spirits industry. The new Illinois of value regulations amend the Illinois Liquor Control Commission’s Administrative Code adding a new section – Section 100.500 – “Of Value Provisions – General Applicability.”

For those of you wondering, “of value” refers to certain inducements in the industry and is taken as a shorthand for a practice that is generally prohibited by federal and state statutes. The shortand comes from the laws/prohibitions that are generally crafted in such a way that they use the term – i.e. –  industry members such as manufacturers, distributors, importers, of beer, wine, or spirits (or their officers employees and other affiliates) giving or lending anything of value to a retailer.

Illinois has not been the most transparent state when it comes to industry guidance. Many rules, regulations, rulings and interpretations and advisory opinions in Illinois are offered to industry members in a one-on-one manner such that they aren’t published to the general public like they are in states like Pennsylvania as Illinois has never adopted a policy of transparency requiring such things to be publicly maintained or disclosed. As such, it’s with welcoming arms that many in the industry accept clarification and codification of certain specific examples and areas of common trade practice regarding what may be “of value” in Illinois.

You can read and download the full text of the of new Illinois of value regulations here. We’ve also embedded them below.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be doing an analysis and discussion of most of the provisions, but as an initial matter, some of the more interesting provisions the become acquainted with are:

5) Industry Member Advertising. An industry member shall not give, and a retailer shall not accept, anything of value in exchange for any advertising service, including but not limited to:

A) Display space advertising or placement of ads in a retailer’s publications, including a retailer’s website; or

B) Payments to a third party for advertisements in which the primary purpose of the advertisement promotes a retailer’s business or aspects of the retailer’s business.

2) Signage. An industry member may provide signage to a retailer, and a retailer may accept signage from an industry member, so long as the signage, in the aggregate, does not exceed the number of signs allowed or the cost adjustment factor dollar limitations under Section 6-6.

Samples. If a retailer has not purchased a brand of alcoholic liquor from an industry member during the immediately preceding 12-month period, it is not an “of value” violation for an industry member to provide that retailer with not more than 384 ounces of any brand of beer, 3 liters of any brand of wine, and 3 liters of any brand of spirits.