State gives up defense of consumer wine shipment law

Attorney General Martha Coakley will not fight a January federal appeals court decision that uncorks out-of-state wine shipments directly to Bay State consumers.

The deliveries now depend on pending state legislation to establish a new regulatory framework for shipments by wineries, including licensing, reporting and tracking requirements.

In January, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2008 district court ruling that labeled as unconstitutional the state law governing direct-to-consumer shipments by wineries.

The court said the law has a “discriminatory effect” on interstate commerce because it prevents direct shipments of 98 percent of out-of-state wine to Bay Staters while allowing direct deliveries by all Massachusetts wineries.

The law dictates that only wineries that produce less than 30,000 gallons a year and haven’t used a wholesaler for distribution in the last six months can ship directly to local consumers.

Coakley’s office, which had an April 14 deadline to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, offered no comment today.

Tracy Genesen, an attorney for Family Winemakers of California, the nonprofit trade group that challenged the state law with two Massachusetts consumers, welcomed Coakley’s decision as a “wise” one.

“Now our hope is that the Legislature will focus on the bill, and we can move forward and get this fixed and ultimately allow Massachusetts consumers to place orders for wine,” said Steve Gross, the state relations director for the Wine Institute in San Francisco. “We anticipate it would be, at best, several more months before that would happen.”

The Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure in February reported favorably on the bill, which has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

The bill also addresses a state common-carrier law that makes it cost-prohibitive for shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS to deliver wine to Massachusetts homes because it requires a permit for each individual delivery truck rather than fleet licensing.