Does Texas have to reveal which retailers a beer or liquor distributor sold to when it shares sales data?

Plain-English summary

Texas runs a reporting system for the wholesale side of the alcohol business. Under Tax Code section 151.462, the Comptroller requires each brewer, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, or package store local distributor to file a monthly report of alcoholic beverage sales to retailers in the state. The report is detailed: it identifies the licensee filing it, lists each retailer that bought alcoholic beverages, and breaks the monthly net sales down by location and by line items such as the number of units, container size and pack, brand name, type of beverage, universal product code, and net selling price.

By statute, those reports are confidential and not subject to the Public Information Act, except as allowed by section 111.006 of the Tax Code. Section 111.006(h) carves out a narrow exception: the Comptroller must disclose information about net sales "by quantity, brand, and size" from a section 151.462 report, but only to a limited group, a person who holds a permit or license under specified chapters of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, and only when the request relates to a product the requestor itself distributes. In effect, a distributor can find out the reported net sales of its own products.

The Comptroller asked a focused question: when she discloses that net-sales information to an authorized requestor, may she identify the retailers who bought the products, or must she identify them? The Attorney General concluded she must. The terms "quantity, brand, and size" in section 111.006(h) track the first three line items in the section 151.462 report, and those line items sit within the report's requirement that the figures be given "in relation to each retailer." Because the net-sales information the statute requires the Comptroller to disclose necessarily includes the names of specific retailers, the Comptroller must include those names when responding to an authorized request.

The opinion was careful about its limits. It pointed out that only three of the six line items in the report must be disclosed under section 111.006(h), and that the Comptroller had asked only whether the disclosure may or must identify the retailers. It did not consider whether any other information about a retailer must also be disclosed.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2012. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later Attorney General opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

What the opinion meant for those who asked

The Texas Comptroller (as the opinion described it): The opinion read section 111.006(h), together with the report's structure under section 151.462, to require the Comptroller to identify the retailers when releasing net-sales data to an authorized requestor. It treated the disclosure as mandatory, not optional.

Distributors and other permit holders who can request data (as the opinion described it): The opinion confirmed that an authorized requestor asking about its own product is entitled to net-sales information that includes the names of the retailers who bought it.

Retailers named in the reports (as the opinion described it): The opinion treated the retailers' identities as part of the net-sales information the Comptroller must disclose to authorized requestors. It did not address whether other information about retailers would also have to be released.

Common questions

Are alcohol distributors' sales reports public records in Texas?
Generally no. Under section 151.464, the information in these reports is confidential and not subject to disclosure under the Public Information Act, except as allowed by section 111.006.

Who can get this sales data?
Only a limited group. Section 111.006(h) allows disclosure to a person holding a permit or license under specified Alcoholic Beverage Code chapters, and only when the request relates to a product the requestor itself distributes.

Does the data the Comptroller releases have to name the retailers?
Yes, as the opinion read the statute. Because the report's net-sales figures are kept "in relation to each retailer," the net-sales information the Comptroller must disclose necessarily includes the retailers' names.

Does this open up all the report's details?
No. The opinion stressed that only three of the six line items (number of units, container size, and brand name, the "quantity, brand, and size" data) must be disclosed under section 111.006(h), and it did not decide whether any other retailer information must be released.

Background and statutory framework

Tax Code section 151.462(a) requires brewers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and package store local distributors to file monthly reports of alcoholic beverage sales to retailers. Section 151.462(b) directs that the report contain specified information "in relation to each retailer," and section 151.462(b)(3) lists six line items of net-sales data, including the number of units, individual container size and pack, brand name, type of beverage, universal product code, and net selling price. Section 151.464 makes that information confidential and exempt from the Public Information Act, except as provided by section 111.006.

Section 111.006(h) requires the Comptroller to disclose net-sales information "by quantity, brand, and size" from a section 151.462 report, but only to a person who holds a permit or license under specified chapters of the Alcoholic Beverage Code (Chapters 19, 20, 21, 37, 64, 65, or 66) and only when the request relates to a product the requestor distributes. The opinion read the "quantity, brand, and size" terms as matching the first three line items of the report, which are kept in relation to each retailer, so the required disclosure includes the retailers' names.

Citations

Statutes:

• Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 151.462(a), (b), (b)(3) (West Supp. 2011)
• Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 151.464
• Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 111.006(h)
• Tex. Gov't Code Ann. ch. 552 (Public Information Act)
• Tex. Alco. Bev. Code Ann. chs. 19, 20, 21, 37, 64, 65, 66

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/greg-abbott/ga-0964
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/2012/ga0964.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from the official PDF. Minor extraction artifacts were corrected; the linked PDF is authoritative.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
GREG ABBOTT

September 12, 2012

The Honorable Susan Combs Opinion No. GA-0964
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Post Office Box 13528 Re: Confidentiality of alcoholic beverage reports
Austin, Texas 78711-3528 submitted to the Comptroller under section 151.462
of the Tax Code (RQ-1050-GA)

Dear Comptroller Combs:

You ask about the confidentiality of alcoholic beverage reports submitted to your office under section 151.462 of the Tax Code. That section directs your office to "require each brewer, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, or package store local distributor to file with the comptroller a report each month of alcoholic beverage sales to retailers in this state."[1] TEX. TAX CODE ANN. § 151.462(a) (West Supp. 2011). The reports must contain a variety of information in three distinct categories: (1) detailed information about each individual licensee or permit holder submitting a report; (2) a detailed list of each retailer that was sold alcoholic beverages; and (3) "the monthly net sales made by the brewer, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, or package store local distributor to the retailer for each outlet or location covered by a separate retail permit or license issued by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission," including separate line items for:

(A) the number of units of alcoholic beverages;

(B) the individual container size and pack of each unit;

(C) the brand name;

(D) the type of beverage, such as distilled spirits, wine, or malt beverage;

(E) the universal product code of the alcoholic beverage; and

(F) the net selling price of the alcoholic beverage.

Id. § 151.462(b)(3). Moreover, "[e]xcept as provided by Section 111.006, information contained in a report required to be filed by this subchapter is confidential and not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code." Id. § 151.464.

Section 111.006 of the Tax Code provides a limited exception to section 151.462's confidentiality requirement. Section 111.006 sets forth information that must be disclosed from the above-described report:

(h) The comptroller shall disclose information to a person regarding net sales by quantity, brand, and size that is submitted in a report required under Section 151.462 if:

(1) the person requesting the information holds a permit or license under Chapter 19, 20, 21, 37, 64, 65, or 66, Alcoholic Beverage Code; and

(2) the request relates only to information regarding the sale of a product distributed by the person making the request.

Id. § 111.006(h). Thus, specific information contained in a report filed under section 151.462 must be disclosed, under certain circumstances, but only to the limited class of persons described by subsection (h) of section 111.006. You inquire whether the information required to be disclosed to that limited class of persons "may identify or must identify the retailers to whom the alcoholic beverages were sold." Request Letter at 2.

We note, first, that the terms "quantity, brand, and size," as used in subsection 111.006(h), parallel the first three items that must be contained in "separate line items" under subsection 151.462(b)(3), as listed above, i.e., "the number of units," "the individual container size," and "the brand name." Those line items are subdivisions of subsection (b)(3), which requires that the report indicate the monthly net sales "to the retailer." Subsection (b)(3) is in turn a subpart of subsection (b), which states the following regarding the contents of the report: "The report must contain the following information for the preceding calendar month's sales in relation to each retailer[.]" TEX. TAX CODE ANN. § 151.462(b) (West Supp. 2011) (emphasis added). And subsection (h) of section 111.006, in describing the kind of information that must be disclosed to the individuals listed therein, specifically requires the disclosure of "information to a person regarding net sales by quantity, brand, and size that is submitted in a report required under Section 151.462." Id. § 111.006(h) (emphasis added). Because the "information ... regarding net sales by quantity, brand, and size that is submitted in a report required under Section 151.462" necessarily includes the names of specific retailers, the Comptroller must include those names when responding to authorized requestors under section 111.006.

We emphasize that only three of the six line items noted in subsection 151.462(b)(3) must be disclosed under subsection 111.006(h). But the mere lack of a specific requirement in subsection 111.006(h) that the information furnished include the name of specific retailers does not detract from the statutory directive regarding the contents of a "report" under section 151.462. Just as that "report," by virtue of the language in subsection (b) of section 151.462, must provide the required information "in relation to each retailer," so must the Comptroller's response to authorized requestors under section 111.006. Compare id. § 151.462(b), with id. § 111.006(h).[2]

SUMMARY

Information from alcoholic beverage reports that is required to be furnished to authorized persons under the circumstances described in section 111.006(h), Tax Code, must identify the retailers to whom the alcoholic beverages are sold.

Very truly yours,

DANIEL T. HODGE
First Assistant Attorney General

JAMES D. BLACKLOCK
Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel

JASON BOATRIGHT
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General, Opinion Committee

[1] Letter from Honorable Susan Combs, Tex. Comptroller of Pub. Accounts, to Honorable Greg Abbott, Tex. Att'y Gen. (Mar. 28, 2012), http://texasattorneygeneral.gov/opin ("Request Letter").

[2] You ask only whether the information that is required to be disclosed "may identify or must identify the retailers." You do not ask, and therefore we do not consider, whether other information about a retailer must also be disclosed.