Trade Practices

Three Boston bars absolved in state ‘pay-to-play’ case

Massachusetts

Three prominent Boston bars whose corporate owners accepted payments from a beer distributor to stock certain brews over others will not be penalized, a frustrating setback for state investigators trying to stamp out the banned practice of “pay-to-play” in the Massachusetts beer industry.

There was never any doubt about the conduct – the restaurant groups that own the bars admitted to state investigators they received inducements from the beer distributor. But commissioners of the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission said Thursday there was no proof the “kickbacks,” as the commissioners termed the payment, were passed on from the corporate parents to their bars.