An earlier, similar law, the Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act (which dated to 1982), resulted in a popular Michigan microbrewer, Bell's Brewery, getting into a dispute with their distributor and pulling their products from the Illinois market entirely in protest in 2006. Bell's re-entered the Chicago market in 2007 via two new distributors by creating two new beer brands, Kalamazoo Royal Amber Ale and Kalamazoo Hopsoulution. Since each beer avoided the use of the "Bell's" name and logo, and used a different recipe from previous Bell's brands, Larry Bell contended that these are not the same beers that were assigned to his former distributor. Nevertheless, Bell stated at the time that he expected "to be sued by his former distributor, National Wine & Spirits." Initially, only the Royal Amber Ale was made available, in draft only, at about a dozen Chicago-area locations. In August 2008, Bell's returned its primary brands to the Chicago area after National Wine & Spirits' exit from Illinois, upon the sale of their Illinois distributorship to Wirtz Beverage Group.
