Tennessee § 57-3-224 - Delivery service license.

§ 57-3-224. Delivery service license.

There is created a delivery service license to be issued by the commission to any delivery service that delivers or facilitates delivery of prepared food from restaurants or items from a retail store to customers as part of the delivery service's business and seeks to deliver sealed packages of alcoholic beverages or beer or both sold by any retailer licensed under this chapter, or an off-premises retail permittee licensed under § 57-5-103 as part of such delivery service. If a delivery service licensed under this section is delivering alcoholic beverages or beer purchased from a retailer in accordance with this subsection (a), the delivery service shall not deliver the alcoholic beverages or beer to a customer who resides or is located at the time of the delivery: More than fifty (50) miles from the licensed premises of the retailer at which the alcoholic beverages or beer were purchased; or In any county other than the county in which such retailer is located or a county contiguous to such county. A delivery service includes, for purposes of this title, a technology services company that provides software or an application for connecting customers, retailers, or restaurants to a delivery driver. A delivery service does not include, and no license is required under this title to operate, a technology services company that does not employ or contract with delivery drivers but rather provides software or an application that connects retail licensees with consumers for the delivery of alcoholic beverages or beer from the retailer pursuant to § 57-3-406(j) or a company that ships wine pursuant to § 57-3-217. This section does not apply to a “motor carrier” or “freight forwarder” as those terms are defined in 49 U.S.C. § 13102, or to an “air carrier” as that term is defined in 49 U.S.C. § 40102. Any person, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation desiring to deliver sealed packages of alcoholic beverages or beer sold by a retailer licensed under § 57-3-204 or an off-premise retail permittee licensed under § 57-5-103 as part of such delivery service shall make application to the commission for a delivery service license, which application shall be in writing and verified, on forms herein authorized to be prescribed and furnished; and the commission shall, subject to the restrictions of this section, issue such license. Any person applying for a delivery service license shall be twenty-one (21) years of age or older and must not have been convicted of a felony as described in § 57-3-210(c). The commission may issue a delivery service license to any person, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation that is registered to do business in this state regardless of the residence of the ownership of such entity. Each applicant for a delivery service license shall pay to the commission a one-time, nonrefundable fee in the amount of three hundred dollars ($300) when the application is submitted for review. A delivery service license shall not be issued by the commission until the applicant pays the annual license fee of one hundred fifty dollars ($150). Each delivery service licensee shall conduct, or have a third party conduct, a local and national criminal background check on any potential employee or independent contractor that seeks to be licensed pursuant to § 57-3-225. Such background check shall include a multistate criminal records locator or other similar commercial nationwide database with validation. It is the duty of each delivery service licensee to ensure that each employee or independent contractor, delivering alcoholic beverages or beer pursuant to § 57-3-406(k) for the licensee, is licensed pursuant to § 57-3-225. A delivery service may use either employees or independent contractors as part of such delivery service. Any person delivering products for a delivery service shall comply with the provisions contained in § 57-3-225 related to delivery drivers in order to deliver alcoholic beverages or beer or both as provided in this section. Acts 2015, ch. 285, § 2; 2016, ch. 1045, §§ 2, 3; 2016, ch. 1068, § 3; 2018, ch. 765, §§ 1-4. Amendments. The 2018 amendment redesignated former (a) as present (a)(1) and added (a)(1)(A), (a)(1)(B) and (2); in the first sentence of present (a)(1), inserted “or facilitates delivery of” and “or items from a retail store”, substituted “any retailer licensed under this chapter, or an off-premises retail permittee” for “a retailer licensed under § 57-3-204 or an off-premise retail permittee”, and deleted “at a distance greater than one hundred (100) miles from the licensed premises of the retailer at which the alcoholic beverages or beer was purchased” at the end; inserted “or independent contractor” in (d) and (e); and added (f). Effective Dates. Acts 2018, ch. 765, § 8. July 1, 2018.