Ensuring fair and legal trade and distribution of alcohol and tobacco products within Maryland is critical. The ATCC’s Trade Practices Unit works closely with stakeholders – mostly manufacturers and wholesalers – to educate them on regulations and provide expert guidance on best practices to maintain compliance. The team conducts pre-license inspections and investigates potential violations like unlawful sales and/or distribution practices or mislabeling of products.
For an in-depth look at Trade Practices, we spoke with Lou Berman, ATCC Trade Practices Supervisor, who has been working in Trade Practices for Maryland’s alcohol and tobacco industry since 1976, and Will Griffin, Trade Practice Investigator. The team includes Investigators Dani Kane and Ken Collier.
Q: What’s a common misconception about Trade Practices?
BERMAN: Getting a license is not like going to the grocery store. If you’re deciding between veal or pork, somebody can tell you the difference and you can make your choice. If you’re going to go into the alcohol manufacturing business, you already should have spoken to your lawyer, accountant, business manager, and even a compliance company before we answer questions. We’re not a replacement for legal services, but we are helpful and will explain the process. When people come to us with licensing questions, we won’t do the application for them, but we answer questions and help. We have the reputation of being perhaps the most industry-helpful Trade Practices Division in the multi-state area.
GRIFFIN: Another misconception is that we know everything that has to do with every document, like the Comptroller’s documents or county-specific retail regulations. We mostly work with manufacturers and wholesalers. The counties work with the retailers. It’s a three-tier system where one entity cannot have an interest in all three tiers.
Q: Lou, how has Trade Practices evolved over your career?
BERMAN: We used to be two divisions through the Comptroller’s Office. In 1976, we became alcohol and tobacco, but before that we were separate divisions. There was no Trade Practices until about eight years ago. The Comptroller’s auditing staff would field the auditing questions, and the administrators would take the administrative questions. We realized that we needed to have something in between the two with a glue that held the agency together and answered all the questions.
Q: How do Trade Practices level the playing field for everyone?
BERMAN: People are afraid to complain. If a retailer calls to complain about a wholesaler, you might win the battle, but you lose the war since your business is dependent on you getting product. We serve as an intermediary, so they don’t have to file a formal complaint. They can come to us and ask us to check it out.
GRIFFIN: I envision us as the face of the ATCC. We’re the point of contact when people apply for a license. We’re the first person that they reach out to if they have a question about anything and we direct them to an answer, whether we answer it or it needs to go to the Comptroller’s Office or is a criminal issue.
BERMAN: We’re the people whose card they have in their Rolodex and whose number is written on the side of the cash register. We do fairness. We’re here to make sure that everybody can get the product they need to do [their business].
Q: Lou, you’re closing in on 50 years in trade practices. What keeps you passionate about this?
BERMAN: It’s fun and has history, too. Do you know why Maryland is called the Free State? It’s because of Maryland abolishing slavery in 1864 and Prohibition. In 1919, the federal government passed the Volstead Act that prohibited the sale and use of alcohol. Every state but Maryland passed a version of the law, but our state legislators felt it violated state laws.
Hamilton Owens, who was editor of The Baltimore Sun, used the nickname “Free State” after Georgia Congressman William D. Upshaw and Prohibition fan said that Maryland was a traitor to the Union for refusing to pass a State enforcement act. Mr. Owens never published his first editorial arguing that Maryland should secede rather than prohibit the sale of liquor, but he did use the term “Free State” in later editorials. Somebody has to tell these stories.
