Fresh off a two-week strike that saw the closure of nearly 700 retail stores across the province, the LCBO has landed itself in hot water once again. 

On Tuesday, multiple major booze conglomerates announced that they are suing the LCBO over the Crown agency's decision in 2023 to penalize suppliers for non-compliance with "contradictory pricing policies." 

The collective of spirit suppliers, which together represent almost 70 per cent of the spirits sold in Ontario, has filed a court application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to declare a "controversial LCBO-pricing term" invalid and unenforceable. 

Impacted suppliers include Beam Canada Inc. (Jim Beam, Sauza Tequila), Brown-Forman Corporation (Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve), Corby Spirit and Wine Ltd. (Jameson, Absolute, Malibu), Diageo Canada Inc. (Crown Royal, Smirnoff), Campari Canada (Aperol, Appleton Estate), and Rémy Cointreau USA, Inc. (Remy Martin, Cointreau).

Suppliers have also alerted the Competition Bureau of Canada that the alcohol retailer's enforcement of this pricing term, in their view, is an "abuse of dominance with major anti-competitive implications for pricing and product choice impacting all Canadian consumers." 

For several months, suppliers claim they have been trying to resolve the issue of the LCBO abruptly levying millions of dollars in penalties for products sold more than a year earlier. 

The impacted companies say they have proposed solutions but that the LCBO has continued to "apply new retroactive penalties." According to the Star, individual fines have ranged from a few thousand dollars to over $1 million. 

"The LCBO has taken an unreasonable, contradictory position: suppliers must meet the LCBO's dictated minimum pricing requirements, but now are issued penalties if Ontario prices exceed prices elsewhere in Canada," a press release by Spirit Canada reads. 

"The enforcement of a most favoured customer clause in conjunction with the LCBO's fixed standard mark-up regime and minimum retail pricing requirement means, effectively, that suppliers cannot lower prices to the LCBO; instead, they must raise prices in other provinces," the statement continues. 

"Spirits suppliers of all sizes have no choice but to comply with the LCBO's demands or face reprisal."

Back in May, Spirits Canada said that its members were considering all options, including pulling some of their products out of Ontario or suing the LCBO. 

"We are disappointed that we have had to refer the LCBO's contradictory policies to the courts, but at this time, and amid retaliatory measures by the LCBO, we have been left with no other options," said Cal Bricker, President and CEO of Spirits Canada.

The lawsuit comes just one day after the LCBO re-opened its doors for the first time since July 5, when approximately 9,000 of its employees walked off the job.