Law Offices of John P. Connell, P.C.: Generally, in Massachusetts, a retail package store is authorized to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption off-premises only. Such an establishment is prohibited from offering alcoholic beverages for consumption on-premises. M.G.L. c. 138, §15. If House Bill 3420 is passed into law, however, local licensing authorities would be authorized to issue a license pursuant to §12 and a license pursuant to §15 on the same premises, to be owned by the same owner. In other words, an establishment would be able to hold both a license to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption off-premises (a §15 license) and a license to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on premises (a §12 license).
House Bill 3420, a petition filed January 17, 2013 by Harold P. Naughton, Jr. of Clinton, would provide municipalities the authorization to issue licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption both on and off the premises. The bill is largely incentivized by a push from grocery stores both selling liquor in their stores, and operating on-premises marketplaces or cafés, such as Wegmans of Northborough. Wegmans recently received authorization to sell alcoholic beverages on the shelves of its grocery store (via a §15 license). Now, the store is pushing to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises of its in-store café (via a §12 license). The desire for such an arrangement revealed the possible need for reform to Massachusetts liquor law, like that proposed in House Bill 3420.
Both the House and Senate referred House Bill 3420 to the committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure on January 22, 2013. A joint hearing on the matter was held March 18, 2014. Reportedly, Representative Naughton is “optimistic” the bill will pass. It has not been reported yet, however, whether the bill would extend to other, non-grocery store, off-premise alcoholic beverage retailers.
CONTRIBUTED BY COURTNEY N. McGEE
© Law Offices of John P. Connell, P.C., 2014.