Three states have added fulfillment house requirements for DTC shippers this year, bringing the total number of states with these requirements to sixteen. The requirements vary. Some states have established licenses or registrations for fulfillment houses; others require specific reports and/or records from the services; another group simply requires DTC shippers to inform them what fulfillment service they use. Here are the new requirements for Maine, Nevada and Wisconsin for DTC shippers: A new law in Maine requires fulfillment providers to register each address from which they ship with the ME Bureau of Alcohol Beverages and Lottery Operations (BABLO). The law also mandates quarterly reporting of wine shipments by direct shippers, fulfillment providers, and common carriers beginning January 1, 2025. The agency only recently began accepting registration applications when its new online licensing system BELLS went live on October 28. Going forward, wineries shipping to consumers in Ma

Last December the Wisconsin legislature passed a major bill, SB 268, which will affect DTC shipments to the state in several ways. The most timely change is the addition of a wine-of-own-production requirement, effective May 1, 2024. Beginning in May, DTC shipments to Wisconsin will be limited to wine “manufactured or bottled by the permittee.”  SB 268 also enacted problematic new laws establishing licenses and reporting requirements for common carriers and fulfillment houses, scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2025. An amendment easing the requirements for carriers was signed into law March 22 after strong lobbying efforts by the major carriers and The Wine Institute. The fulfillment house requirements remain troublesome, but there’s still time for them to be adjusted before the end of the year.  Meanwhile, the wine-of-own-production requirement is in the law to stay, so wineries shipping to WI consumers need to adjust their offerings to comply beginni