Virginia Code 4.1-400: Construction and purpose
This chapter shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 4.1-400
- Alcoholic beverages: includes alcohol, spirits, wine, and beer, and any one or more of such varieties containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol by volume, including mixed alcoholic beverages, and every liquid or solid, powder or crystal, patented or not, containing alcohol, spirits, wine, or beer and capable of being consumed by a human being. See Virginia Code 4.1-100
- Board: means the Board of Directors of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority. See Virginia Code 4.1-100
- United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
- Wine: includes any wine to which wine spirits have been added, as provided in the Internal Revenue Code, to make products commonly known as "fortified wine" which do not exceed an alcohol content of 21 percent by volume. See Virginia Code 4.1-100
The underlying purposes and policies of the chapter are:
1. To promote the interests of the parties and the public in fair business relations between wine wholesalers and wineries, and in the continuation of wine wholesalerships on a fair basis;
2. To preserve and protect the existing three-tier system for the distribution of wine, which system is deemed material to the proper regulation by the Board of the distribution of alcoholic beverages;
3. To prohibit unfair treatment of wine wholesalers by wineries, promote compliance with valid franchise agreements, and define certain rights and remedies of wineries in regard to cancellation of franchise agreements with wholesalers;
4. To establish conditions for creation and continuation of all wholesale wine distributorships, including original agreements and any renewals or amendments thereto, to the full extent consistent with the laws and Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the United States; and
5. To provide for a system of designation and registration of franchise agreements between wineries and wholesalers with the Board as an aid to Board regulation of the distribution of wine by wholesalers.
Code 1950, § 4-118.22; 1985, c. 542, § 4-118.42; 1989, c. 10; 1993, c. 866.