An Ontario judge has ruled against a coalition of the world’s biggest booze conglomerates in their lawsuit against the LCBO, saying it was entitled to enforce a contract clause promising to charge the provincial liquor monopoly the lowest price in Canada.
The suppliers, including Diageo, Campari Group, Beam-Suntory and Brown Forman, sued after being hit with more than $100 million in “chargebacks” for breaching Section 14 of the LCBO’s standard purchase agreement.
In a ruling Friday, Ontario Superior Court justice Peter Cavanagh rejected the alcohol suppliers’ arguments that Section 14 of the LCBO’s purchase agreement was inherently unfair, and also shot down the argument that the LCBO hadn’t enforced it for so long that it was no longer entitled to do so.
“It is noteworthy that each time a supplier accepts a new purchase order, a new agreement to purchase is made and the supplier accepts the Terms and Conditions,” Cavanagh wrote in his ruling. “If a supplier did not wish to be bound by s. 14, it was incumbent on that supplier to seek to have the provision removed.
