HB610 Summary: Lee County Wine Franchise Jobs Protection Act

• Creates the Lee County Wine Franchise Jobs Protection Act to regulate business relationships between wine suppliers and wholesalers in Lee County, maintaining industry stability and a three-tier distribution system.

• Requires suppliers to provide written agreements designating exclusive sales territories and prohibits suppliers from fixing prices, coercing wholesalers, requiring tied purchases, or taking retaliatory actions.

• Establishes transfer procedures allowing wholesalers to transfer businesses to designated family members without supplier approval, while transfers to others require supplier consent only if the proposed transferee meets nondiscriminatory, material, and reasonable qualifications.

• Requires suppliers to provide 60 days written notice before terminating or refusing to renew agreements and specifies grounds for immediate termination including insolvency, license revocation, felony conviction, or non-payment within 2 business days of demand.

• Provides remedies including civil actions for actual damages, arbitration procedures for compensation disputes, injunctive relief, and punitive damages for bad faith conduct; requires all legal actions be filed in Lee County Circuit Court or U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.