Total Wine Loses Rehearing Bid in Liquor Pricing Antitrust Case

Total Wine & More lost its bid Sept. 6 for Second Circuit rehearing of its challenge to Connecticut alcohol regulations that set minimum retail prices, ban volume discounts, and require wholesalers to “post and hold” their prices monthly.

The antitrust lawsuit by Total Wine, the country’s largest liquor store chain, claimed those rules were “horizontal” trade restraints that led to statewide overcharges by preventing price competition. Such restraints constitute “per se” federal antitrust violations, regardless of their justification, the suit said. That means they’re preempted by those federal laws, Total Wine argued.

A federal judge dismissed the suit in 2017. ...