Title 4.1. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control
Chapter 4. Wine Franchise Act
§ 4.1-400. Construction and purpose.
This chapter shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies.
The underlying purposes and policies of the chapter are:
1. To promote the interests of the parties and the public in fair business relations between wine wholesalers and wineries, and in the continuation of wine wholesalerships on a fair basis;
2. To preserve and protect the existing three-tier system for the distribution of wine, which system is deemed material to the proper regulation by the Board of the distribution of alcoholic beverages;
3. To prohibit unfair treatment of wine wholesalers by wineries, promote compliance with valid franchise agreements, and define certain rights and remedies of wineries in regard to cancellation of franchise agreements with wholesalers;
4. To establish conditions for creation and continuation of all wholesale wine distributorships, including original agreements and any renewals or amendments thereto, to the full extent consistent with the laws and Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the United States; and
5. To provide for a system of designation and registration of franchise agreements between wineries and wholesalers with the Board as an aid to Board regulation of the distribution of wine by wholesalers.
Code 1950, § 4-118.22; 1985, c. 542, § 4-118.42; 1989, c. 10; 1993, c. 866.
