Opinion ID: 2597548
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Initial (and short-lived) federal wine labeling regulations issued by the Federal Alcohol Control Administration

Text: As Bronco emphasizes, a few months after adoption of the 1934 California wine labeling regulations, federal wine labeling regulations (which, as explained below, proved to be short-lived and never became effective) were for the first time adopted in late March 1935 by the recently created Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FAC Administration), which had been established by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act (15 U.S.C. § 703). (See Harrison & Lane, After Repeal (1936) p. 24 (After Repeal).) The FAC Administration's regulations, like the numerous similar state food and beverage regulations that preceded them, were directed against, among other things, misbranding  the false or misleading labeling of alcoholic beverages. (See FAC Admin., Misbranding Regs., Series 7 (Mar. 25, 1935) Regs. Relating to the Labeling of Wine, § 3(b)(3) (Misbranding Regulations) [a wine bottle is misbranded if its label tends to create a misleading impression of the wine]; see generally O'Neill, Federal Activity in Alcoholic Beverage Control (1940) 7 Law & Contemp. Probs. 570, 572; After Repeal, supra, at pp. 27-29.) Nowhere in these nascent federal regulations was there any suggestion that they preempted stricter state regulations. In any event, within two months of their adoption and prior to their effective date (see Misbranding Regs. supra, § 1(a)(3)), the federal regulations became unenforceable in late May 1935 after the United States Supreme Court invalidated as unconstitutional similar fair competition codes adopted under the National Industrial Recovery Act. ( Schechter Corp. v. United States (1935) 295 U.S. 495, 541-542, 55 S.Ct. 837, 79 L.Ed. 1570.)