College Park bar owners and local lawmakers agreed to ban very low liquor prices without looking into the legality of their agreement, officials are now saying.
The agreement, which was reached at a meeting organized by College Park Public Services Director Bob Ryan, sets a $1 minimum price for alcoholic drinks. Ryan said the bar owners voluntarily agreed to the arrangement.
“It’s a voluntary agreement; it’s not something the city can enforce,” Ryan said. “Only their word” binds the bar owners to the agreement.
“They gave their word that, starting August 1, they would charge at least $1 for each 16-ounce serving of beer and $2 for each 1 1/2-ounce serving of distilled spirit drinks,” he added.
The meeting was called after state Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) said he received complaints from local residents about low prices at area bars, such as Thirsty Turtle’s 25-cent rails. He encouraged the city to host a meeting between bar owners and other parties.
Ryan compared the arrangement to Baltimore County’s Cooperating Taverns and Alcohol Retailers’ Agreement. However, that agreement does not include a price floor, said Elaine Lawton, a Baltimore County health department official who helped prepare it.
“Our agreement just says strive to avoid very inexpensive drinks,” Lawton said. She said the agreement was designed to reward bar owners who were already engaging in “responsible practices,” not force business owners to change their behavior.
Price fixing falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Justice Department’s website reads, “American consumers have the right to expect the benefits of free and open competition – the best goods and services at the lowest prices … When competitors collude, prices are inflated and the customer is cheated.”
The site goes on to describe price fixing as “an agreement among competitors to raise, fix, or otherwise maintain the price at which their goods or services are sold.”
Ryan said the city did not consider the legality of a price floor because the agreement was voluntary. He said one of the bar owners, whom Ryan declined to name, said he would look into it, but the city hasn’t followed up on his research.
A Justice Department spokeswoman would not say whether the College Park agreement amounts to price fixing, because it has not been reported to its antitrust division.
The bar owners involved in the agreement would not comment, but in a Facebook message sent to the members of the group “THIRSTY TUESDAYS ONE DOLLAR PITCHERS and DRINKS” in early August stated, “THANKS TO THE LOVELY CITY OF COLLEGE PARK WE HAD TO CHANGE OUR PRICES…SORRY GUYS.” Thirsty Turtle co-owner Alan Wanuck said he did not authorize the message.
Pinsky said his role in the meeting was “encouraging conversation.”
“I was sort of encouraging some of the people to find a resolution to the problem [of] just about giving away free alcohol in the bars in town,” Pinsky said. “I personally was offended by the practice of offering 25-cent and 50-cent drinks to make it easier for young people to get drunk.”
Pinsky did not attend the meeting, so he said he could not be sure whether the resulting price floor qualifies as price fixing. He said his impression was that the bar owners decided “independently” to raise their prices.
Ryan had also identified two other local legislators – state Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s) and county councilman Eric Olson – who he said also passed along constituent concerns to the city to encourage the meeting to discuss prices. Rosapepe said he was not involved. Olson is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
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