HB544 Alabama 2014 Session

Relating to Madison County; relating to alcoholic beverages and the sale of wine in Madison County; to create the Madison County Wine Franchise Jobs Protection Act; to provide for business relations between suppliers and wholesalers of wine to preserve and expand jobs in Madison County in the wine industry; to require written agreements setting forth in full the supplier's agreement with the wholesaler, and designating a specific exclusive sales territory; to provide for prohibited acts by the supplier and by the wholesaler; to provide for conditions of amendment, modification, resignation, cancellation, termination, failure to renew, or refusal to continue the agreement; to provide for the transfer of wholesaler's business, for the establishment of nondiscriminatory, material, and reasonable qualifications and standards by suppliers, and prohibit interference with the transfer upon compliance with those standards; to provide for reasonable compensation upon supplier's violation of the act, including a method of voluntary arbitration; to provide for civil actions for violations, damages, and venue; to provide for the burden of proof; to provide that the wholesaler may not waive rights set forth in this act; to provide that the act relates to existing and future agreements with wholesalers and suppliers as well as their successors and transferees; to provide that this act is cumulative; and to provide for an effective date.