Daily Brew
Mar 08, 2023
Amazon wanted to ‘unlock’ the liquor market by secretly lobbying to change laws
A confidential Amazon document obtained by Motherboard shows how the company wanted to make an aggressive push into the alcohol delivery market by launching a multi-state lobbying campaign to change alcohol licensing laws and regulations, in concert with a “limited government” think tank. The document, titled 2021 Alcohol Public Policy Strategy, states that Amazon needed to defeat “Amazon-specific legislative threats” related to self-checkout in California “as it will be a highly-politicized union issue,” and that it thought the R Street Institute (RSI) could “shield us” by “providing cover when involvement by large retail brands is detrimental to progress.”