Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/853816
August 2017 WINES&VINES 15 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS S an Rafael, Calif.—The nation's largest wine wholesaler, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, is the target of a class- action lawsuit that alleges "unfair, unlawful, deceptive and fraudulent business practices" that run afoul of numerous state and federal laws. The lawsuit was filed July 5 in the U.S. District Court of Northern California by the firms Scott Cole & Associates, APC and Wak- eford Gelini on behalf of San Jose resident James C. Nguyen, who holds a liquor license for a San Jose restaurant and bar. According to the lawsuit, Nguyen learned of the distributor's alleged practices after he received a tax bill from the state for liquor he never ordered from the wholesaler. His attorneys argue Southern's manage- ment and employees made a habit of using their customers' account numbers to process fraudulent purchases to either achieve sales quotas or drive up business for lucrative ac- counts. The lawsuit also alleges Southern sold alcohol to unlicensed third parties as well as provided full-size liquor bottles with "sample" labels for free or sold alcohol for a penny per bottle as a way to keep retailers and restaurants from reporting unethical behavior. Southern is also accused of threatening to cut off supply if a restaurant or retailer didn't buy sufficient quantities of certain brands and other brands offered by the wholesaler. The goal, according to the lawsuit, was to maintain exclusive and profitable relations with top suppliers and extract as much profit as pos- sible from restaurant and retail clients. "Through its unscrupulous, unethical and unlawful schemes detailed herein, Southern has enjoyed increased revenues, profitability and market share from its larger volume of sales," the law- suit alleges. "These practices have given South- ern an unfair competitive advantage over its competition with a resultant disadvantage to the public and class members." The company's practices, as described in the lawsuit, also allegedly helped secure "highly desirable and highly profitable supply relationships" and that "during the class pe- riod, Southern enjoyed numerous exclusive contracts with alcohol manufacturers/produc- ers with a resultantly larger client base, more orders therefrom and higher profitability." A spokesman for Southern did not imme- diately reply to Wines & Vines' request for comment but was quoted in other news re- ports as saying the company was reviewing the allegations in the lawsuit and did not have any comment. In a statement released after filing the law- suit, attorney Scott Cole said the case, if suc- cessful, could "substantially" compensate many of Southern's customers for several years of business. "Southern's clients trusted they'd be treated right, not charged for liquor they never bought—not forced to buy what they didn't need," Cole said. "The sheer number of poten- tial violations is jaw-dropping." According to Wines Vines Analytics' distribu- tor database, Southern Glazer's operates in 44 states and represents 1,178 unique domestic wineries. On its website, the company claims to sell 150 million cases of wine and spirits per year, and Impact Newsletter estimated the firm's total revenue in 2016 at more than $16 billion. "Particularly as an industry leader, Southern is bound to act responsibly toward its clients. I am astounded by the scope of the allegations," said Kelley Gelini, another principal attorney who filed the case. In November 2016, Southern was the sub- ject of a similar lawsuit filed on behalf of four bars in Albany, N.Y. The owners sought $1.25 million in damages and alleged a Southern employee fabricated thousands of dollars of orders and also charged more than $100,000 through the bars' accounts for alcohol that may have been sold on the side. According to reports in the The Times Union newspaper, the attorney representing the bars rejected an offer to settle the case because Southern refused to acknowledge such abuses by its staff were widespread. The company later released a statement to the Albany paper that it planned to "vigor- ously defend" itself against the "inaccurate" claims in the suit and blamed the wrongful conduct on "a single employee acting inde- pendently of company policy and who has been terminated." The current status of the case is unclear, and the Albany attorney representing the bars, and the owner, did not immediately return a call or email for comment by Wines & Vines. Another of the nation's largest distributors, Johnson Brothers Liquor Co. and its West Vir- ginia subsidiary Mountain State Beverage, are also facing a legal challenge. The Minnesota-based company is the fifth-largest wholesaler in the United States, according to Wines Vines Analytics, and was sued by six smaller distributors in West Vir- ginia. According to a statement by the firm Bailey & Glasser, which is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit also filed in early July, Mountain State Beverage used "anti- competitive" practices in an attempt to mo- nopolize the wine market in West Virginia by forcing smaller companies either to sell or go out of business. The distributors filing suit against Mountain State Beverage include Wine and Beverage Merchants of West Virginia, Atomic Distribut- ing Co., Beverage Distributors Inc., Jo's Globe Inc. and Martin Distributing Co. The companies claim Johnson Brothers and Mountain State operated at a loss to drive competitors out of business, paid fees and used other tactics to induce suppliers to not do business with the plaintiffs and regularly claimed to suppliers and the plaintiffs' employees that the compa- nies would soon go out of business. —Andrew Adams TOP STORY Southern Glazer's Hit with Lawsuit Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits distributes wine in 44 states. " Southern's clients trusted they'd be treated right, not charged for liquor they never bought." —Scott Cole, Scott Cole & Associates