OPINION & EDITORIAL
Justice on tap
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- A security fee-for-all (December 11, 2007)
- Farewell, Chancellor (December 10, 2007)
- $$FC (December 6, 2007)
- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
- Entitlement Town (December 4, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Disbarred (September 17, 2007)
- Density plan dense, indeed (January 18, 2007)
- Keep downtown on tap (September 26, 2006)
- Alcohol plan would be a sobering mistake (September 13, 2007)
- Pop the cork! (March 6, 2002)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Monday, October 8, 2007
The City Council’s recent passage of the Alcohol Density Plan — which prohibits the issuance of new liquor licenses in the downtown area — was not the first time this decade that city officials attempted to regulate students into a state of sobriety, as proceedings at the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week reminded us.
In 2002, the University of Wisconsin’s Policy Alternatives Community and Education (PACE) project conducted a study linking drink specials to alcohol-related problems downtown. Along with city officials, PACE began a campaign to get bars to drop the deals, threatening to ban specials legislatively if need be. Reacting to the pressure, 24 downtown bars in September 2002 agreed to “voluntarily” ban drink specials after 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
Predictably, the ban did little to temper students’ taste for consuming large amounts of alcohol. It did lead a group of UW students to file a class-action lawsuit against the 24 bars in 2004, however, alleging the voluntary ban was an illegal conspiracy to fix prices in violation of antitrust laws. The bars ditched the ban when the suit was filed.
The circuit court dismissed the lawsuit on summary judgment, ruling antitrust laws should not apply because the bars enacted the ban under “regulatory demands” from the city. An appeals court upheld the dismissal.
Now the Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold the appellate court’s decision or to reinstate the lawsuit. The high court heard oral arguments last week.
On its face, the drink special ban was a collusive act on the part of the bars. Indeed, some establishments might have been only too happy to go along with a plan that promised higher profit margins and little risk of losing market share. In that sense, the drink special ban shares a perverse commonality with the density plan, which essentially shields existing downtown bars from any new competition for the indefinite future.
Yet there was never any indication that the bar owners planned to collude absent heavy pressure from the city and PACE. We cannot see how justice would be served by punishing the bars for doing what they did under the threat of an ordinance that would have created even more stringent drink special regulations.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court should kill this lawsuit once and for all. We only regret that no one can do the same to the city’s misguided and anti-capitalist approach toward downtown alcohol policy.
Anonymous (October 8, 2007 @ 11:38am):
"Yet there was never any indication that the bar owners planned to collude absent heavy pressure from the city and PACE"
Are you not aware that the separate federal lawsuit charges price fixing back to the early 1990s?
The bars, which you acknowledge profited from their voluntary agreement, made it appear that they were being pressured and hence were the victims and not the beneficiaries. They also pretended that they believed their actions were lawful though they knew otherwise (they say in their press release that they had "reservations" about engaging in what could be considered "illegal collusion in restraint of trade" So are we suppose to believe they they knowingly engaged in what they knew to be a criminal price fixing conspiracy to avoid the passage of anticompetitive legislation that would have benefited them (as did their agreement, as does the density plan ...) ??? get real.
Add a comment
We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.
Login...
Not registered? Sign up now.
It's quick, free, and the email address you provide will not be sold or solicited.
