Maryland Statutes
Subtitle 1 - Beer Franchise Fair Dealing Act
Section 5-103 - Legislative Policy

(a)    It is the policy of the State that:
        (1)    it is necessary to regulate and control beer franchise agreements and relationships between beer manufacturers and beer distributors:
            (i)    to foster and promote temperance in the consumption of beer; and
            (ii)    to promote respect for and obedience to the laws that control the distribution and sale of beer; and
        (2)    temperance and obedience to the laws that control the distribution and ultimate sale of beer is promoted by legislation that encourages beer distributors to make investments in their facilities to serve retail license holders by protecting them against the termination of beer distributorships, or other acts described in this subtitle, without good cause for the termination or other acts.
    (b)    It is necessary to accomplish this policy to eliminate the undue stimulation of sales of beer in the State by beer manufacturers that induce or coerce, or attempt to induce or coerce, beer distributors to act detrimentally to the orderly and lawful distribution of beer by:
        (1)    threatened or actual termination of the beer manufacturer and beer distributor relationship, directly or indirectly;
        (2)    the establishment of dual beer distributors of a brand or brands of beer in a sales territory presently served by a beer distributor; or
        (3)    the sale of the same brand or brands of beer in one sales territory by more than one franchisee.
    (c)    The General Assembly further recognizes the distinction between the nature of the distribution of beer and other alcoholic beverages in that distributors of alcoholic beverages other than beer are franchised by manufacturers to distribute many brands of various kinds of alcoholic beverages and are not as vulnerable to the economic pressures of the manufacturers as are beer distributors, which traditionally handle mainly one, two, or three brands of beer in their distributorships.

Structure Maryland Statutes