HB 1068 Summary

• Defines supplier refusal to sell food or beverage products to a retailer with prior business history at the same price offered to other retailers as an unconscionable act treated as a deceptive act under consumer law.

• Establishes exceptions allowing suppliers to charge higher prices based on lower quantity purchases, greater delivery costs, or changing market conditions (perishable deterioration, seasonal obsolescence, distress sales).

• Requires courts to award harmed retailers the price difference between what they paid and the lower price charged to competing retailers.

• Authorizes the attorney general to recover a civil penalty equal to two times the price difference when pursuing injunctions against unconscionable supplier pricing practices.

• Effective July 1, 2014; does not apply to franchisor-franchisee contracts or alcoholic beverage sales.