Miller Brewing Co. v. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

Petitioner Miller Brewing Company (Miller) seeks a writ of mandate directing respondents Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and its Director (Department) to refrain from enforcing Department’s rule 106 so as to prohibit Miller from giving things of value to members of the public in circumstances unrelated to a sale of alcoholic beverages. We shall deny the petition.

Miller is a licensed manufacturer of beer and thus subject to regulation by the Department. (See Cal. Const., art. XX, § 22.) In 1987 Miller produced, financed and sponsored a comedy concert tour featuring comedian Joe Piscopo. Some of the concerts were held in California, and the proceeds donated to the Olympic Training Center, a nonprofit corporation providing free training facilities to amateur athletes training to compete in the Olympics. Miller planned to promote the tour in California over cosponsoring radio stations. Miller would provide concert tickets and jackets to the cosponsoring stations which would in turn give them to listeners who called in when the stations advertised the concert and the “give-aways.” The tickets would identify Miller as a sponsor of the concert and the jackets would…