HARRISBURG – The following statement was issued Wednesday afternoon by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board after filing an appeal to a Commonwealth Court decision. The statement came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Malt Beverages Distributors Association that forced a Sheetz store in Altoona to stop selling beer and malt beverages less than one month after the convenience store began to sell them.
As of posting time, a statement had not been released by Sheetz.
“Today, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) filed an appeal of the Commonwealth Court’s recent decision in Malt Beverages Distributors Association v. PLCB. The Board is appealing because it disagrees with the Court’s interpretation of Section 102 of the Liquor Code. Specifically, the board disagrees with the Court’s mandate that retail dispenser eating place (“E”) licensees sell malt or brewed beverages for on-premise consumption.
“The Board believes that the Liquor Code grants licensees a right to sell alcohol, but has never interpreted the Code to impose a duty on licensees to sell alcohol. Such a duty to sell is antithetical to a system designed to control and not to promote the sale of alcohol. Further, this newly imposed duty has been imposed not just on this particular applicant, but on the hundreds of other “E” license holders and, if the decision is left unchallenged, may, in the future, be the basis to impose a similar duty to sell on other types of licenses, such as Restaurant licenses. If the Commonwealth Court’s decision is left unchallenged, all licensees who have operated under the PLCB’s historical interpretation of the Liquor Code could now be subject to citation for failure to follow the Court’s interpretation. To exacerbate the matter, the Court decision provides absolutely no guidance as to the parameters of this duty to sell for on-premises consumption, and thus the Board will be able to provide little guidance to the licensing community as to when and how often beer must be provided for on-premises consumption.”