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German| Date: 2004-06-23 20:59:25 |
| From: David Williams |
Subject: RE: New feature at Wein-Plus.com |
| You are right in saying it is complicated to buy European wines in the USA - in fact as far as I know it is only possible for consumers to buy through a licenced importer who has a licence to sell alcohol. However there is another major problem - (illustrated by your example "Where can I buy wines from winery X in state Y") - which is that 26 states PROHIBIT INTER-STATE SALES. For example it is legal for residents of New England to buy from other states but not residents in New York. The US Supreme Court will now heard 3 cases which, it is claimed, involve constitutional law since although the 21st Amendment ended Prohibition in 1933 it gave individual states the right to regulate alcohol. It seems these cases will rest on the power of Congress to also regulate commerce between the states. Alcohol wholesalers want the law to stay as it is; on the other hand winemakers want to see a change so that they can sell their products over the internet. The 25 states which do allow inter-state trading would still have individual regulations concerning tax. That is still likely to make it difficult for any European winery, Weingärtnergenossenschaft etc. to supply wine directly to customers in the US - it may just become difficult instead of impossible! I mention that because, as you know, tax like MWSt is deducted for US customers but taxes (Sales taxes) are not uniform from one state to another. I am not quite sure (since I am British and not American) how importers of European wine in the US deal with this problem. I can only tell you that my local Weingärtnergenossenschaft won't send anything to America as they had 3 different orders returned by US (State) Customs for which they had to pay return transport costs. I am trying to find out more from the Institue for Justice which is, I understand, bringing the legal action. It is expected the case will be heard at the end of the year and a ruling handed down in about June 2005. In the meantime it would be helpful if any US readers can add to this information. David Williams -----Original Message----- From: wineforum_owner@apris.de [mailto:wineforum_owner@apris.de]On Behalf Of Martin H. Geiger Sent: 22 June 2004 16:36 To: wineforum@wein-plus.com Subject: [wineforum] New feature at Wein-Plus.com Hi, animated by the discussion in this mailing list, Utz decided to implement a new feature to www.wein-plus.com. We learned, that it seems to be rather complicated to buy european wines in the USA. As we understood, are the reasons for this to see on the one side in the legal environment, and on the other side in the seperation to importes and retailers. Many questions in the last weeks focused something like "Where can I buy wines form winery x in state y". In our german-language website www.wein-plus.de we have a very powerfull feature named "Weinlotse". This is a sorted list of wine-realted websites. Wineries, importes and retailers are listed here. We now offer the same service at our english-languaged plattform. Of course, actually there is very small content. So we ask you for two things: - If you are an importer or a retailer of european wines, please enter your data to this tool. - If you know such companies, please let us know. Of course we will ask the german winemakers for their business partners in the USA. It would be great to implement a mostly complete overview to the wine bargain in the USA. Of course, we are at your disposal for further information. Best regards Martin H. Geiger www.wein-plus.de www.wein-plus.com Martin H. Geiger - Werbung und Kooperationen - Heusteg 47 91056 Erlangen Tel +49 9131 75 50 14 Fax +49 9131 75 50 50 Mail: geiger@wein-plus.de --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.577 / Virus Database: 366 - Release Date: 03/02/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.577 / Virus Database: 366 - Release Date: 03/02/2004 |
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