Lawmakers Consider Crackdowns on Direct-to-Consumer Alcohol Shipping Over Concerns of Underaged Drinking, Counterfeit Booze

Lawmakers are growing increasingly wary of direct-to-consumer alcohol shipping due to claims of lacking regulation. (Photo: AP Photo/David Goldman)

On Tuesday, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America shared that lawmakers across the U.S. are growing increasingly wary of direct-to-consumer alcohol shipping, citing rising incidents of underage drinking, “adulterated products” and losses in tax revenue.

Wine and Spirits Wholesalers cites losses in tax revenue as somewhere in the millions. The outlet additionally provided statistics from the Massachusetts ABC Chief investigator after a series of sting operations took place in 2023 and the data was sobering, to say the least.

The results demonstrated that 96% of e-commerce sites with DTC orders accepted payments from 15-year-old customers, 43% did not gather the required adult signature, 26% of the shipments were left on the customer’s doorstep without seeking a signature, and zero bothered to check the recipient’s ID.

A South Carolina State Representative Weston Newton declared on the house floor that he simply had to “type in his credit card number” to receive a bourbon shipment.

Some states have imposed crackdowns requiring common carriers to report on every DTC shipment, like Oklahoma. The state’s senator claimed with the new legislation “Oklahoma can identify and pursue enforcement actions against unlicensed unscrupulous actors who ship illegally to consumers, harming public safety.”

Texas implemented common carrier reporting, and the state’s ABC found data that 57% of all wine shipments, or the equivalent of 1,217,924, went by unreported in the state, making them illegal.

A survey conducted by the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America in January 2023 reported that almost 60% of adults in the U.S. were worried about DTC shipping and exposing underaged individuals to alcohol.

“The data is clear,” WSWA President Francis Creighton said in the survey. “When we talk about expanding interstate alcohol shipping, we’re talking about dismantling the three-tier system to benefit 10% or fewer American adults while more than doubling ID check compliance failure rates. Expanding shipping threatens the ability of states to protect public health and safety.”

Other issues besides underage drinking include the sale of counterfeit liquor to unwitting buyers.

In June 2023, 19 News reported on “illegal pyramid schemes targeting wine aficionados as well as consumers being sold diluted or counterfeit whiskey.”

It is well documented that consuming counterfeit liquor could have disastrous health consequences and result in death.

“The bottom line is that we have alcohol coming into our state from unlicensed entities and individuals throughout the country and the world…” Massachusetts ABC Chief Investigator Ted Mahoney said, according to Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America. “We have to get back to the basic understanding that this can be a dangerous product and the principle that alcohol should be sold and delivered by responsible entities and individuals that are properly licensed and trained. This should be the highest priority for state alcohol regulators.”

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