(a) A person employed or engaged by an authorized licensee may appear at a promotional event at the premises of an off-sale retail licensee for the purposes of providing autographs to consumers at the promotional event only under the following conditions:

(1) A purchase from the off-sale retail licensee is not required.

(2) A fee is not charged to attend the promotional event.

(3) Autographing may only be provided on consumer advertising specialities given by the authorized licensee to a consumer or on any item provided by the consumer.

(4) The promotional event does not exceed four hours in duration.

(5) There are no more than two promotional events per calendar year involving the same authorized licensee at a single premises of an off-sale retail licensee.

(6) The off-sale retail licensee may advertise the promotional event to be held at its licensed premises.

(7) An authorized licensee may advertise in advance of the promotional event only in publications of the authorized licensee, subject to the following conditions:

(A) The advertising only lists the name and address of the off-sale retail licensee, the name of the alcoholic beverage product being featured at the promotional event, and the time, date, and location of the off-sale retail licensee location where the promotional event is being held.

(B) The listing of the off-sale retail licensee’s name and address is the only reference to the off-sale retail licensee in the advertisement and is relatively inconspicuous in relation to the advertisement as a whole, and the advertisement does not contain any pictures or illustrations of the off-sale retail licensee’s premises or laudatory references to the off-sale retail licensee.

(8) A wholesaler does not directly or indirectly underwrite, share in, or contribute to any costs related to the promotional event, except that a beer and wine wholesaler that holds at least six distilled spirits wholesaler licenses may directly or indirectly underwrite, share in, or contribute to any costs related to a promotional event for which the wholesaler employs or engages the person providing autographs to consumers at the promotional event.

(9) The authorized licensee notifies the department in writing of the promotional event at least 30 days in advance of the promotional event.

(10) The authorized licensee maintains records necessary to establish its compliance with this section.

(b) For purposes of this section, “authorized licensee” means a manufacturer, winegrower, manufacturer’s agent, California winegrower’s agent, rectifier, importer, brandy manufacturer, brandy importer, or wholesaler.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 311, Sec. 2. (SB 796) Effective January 1, 2016.)