We wanted to send a reminder to all wholesalers to carefully review any and all retail vendor agreements that you receive before signing them. The two most common types of clauses in such agreements that violateOhio’s tied-house laws and rules are those that require a wholesaler to list the retailer as an “additional insured” under the wholesaler’s liability insurance policy or those that require a wholesaler to indemnify a retailer. Please review any vendor agreement that you receive for these types of provisions. Below is a link to a sample letter to send a retailer in response to an agreement with an additional insured provision in it.
Also, please remember the general prohibition in Rule 43(E) that a wholesaler shall not “accept the return of or repurchase any alcoholic beverages from any retail permit holder.” A recent vendor agreement we reviewed attempted to impose an obligation on a wholesaler to accept returns of product for a period of twelve months. Below is a link to a copy of Rule 43(E) with its limited exceptions.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can provide any further information or assistance in connection with such agreements.
Dick Lumpe & Dave Raber