AB 720: Beverages: alcohol permits: container labeling.

(1)Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. Existing law authorizes licensed winegrowers and brandy manufacturers to exercise their license privileges away from their licensed premises at, or from, branch offices or warehouses or United States bonded wine cellars located away from the place of production or manufacture, subject to specified exceptions. One of the exceptions to this authorization is production or manufacture.

This bill would specify that the exception of production or manufacture does not include mere storage of wine or topping of wine barrels, as specified.

Existing law generally prohibits any person or licensee from having alcoholic beverages at a licensed premises other than those beverages that the license authorizes for sale, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the holder of any combination of a beer manufacturers license, winegrowers license, craft distilled spirits manufacturers license, or a brandy manufacturers license for a single premises to have alcoholic beverages authorized under those licenses at the same time anywhere within the premises, as specified, if certain conditions are met, including that the manufacturers licenses for the single premises are either all master licenses or all branch offices, and not a combination of a master license and a branch office.

This bill would, notwithstanding the above-described provision, authorize the holder of a winegrowers license and a brandy manufacturers license for the same premises, where one license is a master license and the other is a branch license, to store, age, conduct brandy tastings, and engage in sales for off-premises consumption.

Existing law authorizes the issuance of a caterers permit, upon application to the department, to a licensee under an on-sale general license, an on-sale beer and wine license, a club license, or a veterans club license, that authorizes the holder of the permit to sell alcoholic beverages at specified locations and events. Existing law requires the permitholder to obtain consent from the department for each event in the form of a catering authorization and imposes a fee for the authorization based on the estimated attendance at each day of the event. Existing law imposes various limitations on the permits, including prohibiting a catering authorization from being issued for use at any one premises for more than 36 events in one calendar year, except as specified.

This bill would similarly authorize a licensed winegrower to apply for, and the department to issue, an estate tasting event permit that would authorize the winegrower to exercise its tasting room privileges for wine manufactured by or for the winegrower at specified locations and all of the same privileges allowed under their license for the duration of the event, subject to local land use authority, as specified. The bill would require a permitholder to obtain consent from the department for each event in the form of an estate tasting event authorization and would impose a fee of $100 for each estate tasting event. The bill would prohibit an estate tasting event authorization from being issued for more than 36 events per licensee per calendar year. The bill would impose an annual fee for an estate tasting event permit of $200 and would authorize the permit to be transferable as part of the winegrowers license.

(2)The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act requires a beverage manufacturer to label a beverage container sold or offered for sale by that beverage manufacturer in the state with one of several specified redemption value messages by printing or embossing the beverage container or by affixing a clear stamp, label, or other device, as specified.

This bill would authorize a beverage manufacturer to etch a required redemption value message on a beverage container.

The act authorizes the department to require a beverage container intended for sale in the state to be printed, embossed, stamped, labeled, or otherwise marked with a scan code, a quick response (QR) code, or a universal product code (UPC), or similar machine-readable indicia. The act prohibits a person from offering to sell, or selling, to a consumer a beverage container that has not been labeled as required by the act. Existing law provides that a violation of the act or a regulation adopted pursuant to the act is a crime.

This bill would require those markings to be at least ¹/₂ inch in size. The bill would authorize the use of a chasing arrows symbol for a recyclable beverage container on the inside of a machine-readable label, as specified. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose state-mandated local program.

The act exempts a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024, from the acts labeling requirements until July 1, 2025.

This bill would extend that exemption until July 1, 2026.

The act exempts a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024, that was filled and labeled before January 1, 2024, from the acts labeling requirements.

This bill would instead exempt a beverage container included within the scope of the act beginning on January 1, 2024, that was filled and labeled before July 1, 2025.

(3)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.