Home Delivery of Alcohol: Increased Alcohol Consumption and Binge Drinking

Your phone buzzes with a text from your oldest friend: “Did you hear about that new vineyard in our hometown?”

“Yeah! We drove down last weekend — the rosé is ridiculous,” you respond.

“Ugh, of course they open right after I leave. I wish I weren’t a thousand miles away. Y’all are so lucky,” your friend answers, punctuating each sentence with a melty-faced emoji.

Before you can reply, they shoot you another text. This time, they ask, “Could you ship me a couple bottles? I’ll pay the postage.”

You’re about to say yes, but wait … can you send alcohol in the mail?

Is It Illegal To Ship Alcohol?

According to the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), private citizens cannot send spirits to friends or family members. That’s both heavily regulated and illegal (at least, shipping via the USPS is — more on that below).

Seems pretty straightforward, huh? Not so fast. Turns out, it’s only legal to mail alcohol if we’re representing a business. But even in that case, the situation quickly becomes complicated by the unique licenses and permits required by individual states for importing and exporting alcohol. It also makes a difference if we’re shipping to a person or to another business.

Sure, shipping alcohol is illegal. But just how illegal? And can we get around it by shipping with a private company?

Shipping Alcohol via USPS

We can’t ship alcohol via the United States Postal Service. Title 18, Section 1716F of the U.S. Code prevents us from mailing “all spiritous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquors.” Basically, beer, wine, and liquor are all categorized as “unmailable.” We’re not allowed to send these liquids through the USPS and the Postal Service isn’t allowed to deliver them. The only exceptions are mouthwash, cold medicine, and certain types of cooking wine.

In 2019 and 2023, members of Congress submitted resolutions appealing the Prohibition-era law preventing the USPS from shipping alcohol products. H.R. 2517 and H.R. 3721 (both titled the USPS Shipping Equity Act) campaigned for the Postal Service to transport alcoholic goods from licensed retailers and producers directly to customers. These resolutions have bounced around various subcommittees, where they will continue to stay without any further action from legislators. Ultimately, the bills’ sponsors hope that the passage of the USPS Shipping Equity Act will empower the Postal Service to compete with private carriers like FedEx and UPS.

Mailing Alcohol via FedEx or UPS

FedEx and UPS both prohibit individual alcohol shipments in their terms of service. However, businesses can mail products containing alcohol, as long as they adhere to state and local laws pertaining to labeling, shipping, and package contents. Both FedEx and UPS require companies to sign contracts with their delivery services. UPS will transport wine and beer on a business’s behalf. FedEx only ships wine.

Why Is Mailing Alcohol Illegal?

In the land of the free, why can’t we mail alcohol to our friends and family? Well, it’s complicated. Basically, these rules exist for three (very good) reasons.

1. Parcels containing alcoholic beverages are uniquely flammable. Shipping companies can transport them as nonhazardous materials, but only if the materials meet certain criteria regarding their size, weight, quantity, and packaging. For example, the package’s contents must be secured and cushioned from breakage or leakage.
2. The same amendment that repealed Prohibition gave states the power to regulate alcohol’s transportation. Some parts of the country vehemently opposed the repeal of Prohibition laws (Mississippi held onto theirs for 33 years after the end of federal alcohol Prohibition, finally letting them go in 1966). As a result, each state has its own laws related to the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcohol.

Seventeen states, including Utah and Idaho, control the distribution of alcoholic beverages by selling them through state-run stores. The rest of the union is made up of “open states,” meaning they allow private businesses to sell alcohol to the public — provided they get the proper licenses, of course. To regulate that flow of commerce, there must be obstacles to shipping alcohol.
3. States need to collect taxes on goods shipped to consumers. Alcohol’s a major moneymaker for tax agencies, and its sale and movement are overseen by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau — an offshoot of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The TTB doesn’t mess around. They’ve even prohibited students from distilling alcohol for science fair projects.

To sum all of this up, private citizens can’t mail alcohol because of state laws, the tax value of alcohol, and the whole catching-on-fire thing. The privilege of mailing booze is exclusive to licensed businesses. Companies are overseen by government entities like the TTB, which ensure compliance with regulations about packaging and shipping.

Can I Ship Alcohol to a Friend?

Unless we run a licensed business, nope, we can’t ship alcohol to friends. Individuals aren’t allowed to mail beer, wine, or liquor via USPS, UPS, or FedEx. But that doesn’t mean alcoholic gifts are off the table!

Consider these workarounds:

• Shop local. Purchase the present through a liquor store, brewery, or distillery in their area, then tell them to go pick it up (or have a third party pick it up).
• Do delivery. When you know they’ll be home, arrange a gift order through Instacart or another food delivery service.
• Leave it to the pros. Choose a nice bottle from a direct-to-consumer website, then input their address as the destination.
• Let them decide. Send them a gift card for a local or online vendor.

As always, double-check state laws and platform terms of service before taking your virtual cart to checkout!

Can I Get Alcohol Delivered?

Whether or not we can get drinks delivered depends on our location. It’s much easier to receive alcohol than to send it, thanks to a number of pandemic-era law changes. Consider alcohol delivery holdouts Alabama and Oklahoma, which finally gave some licensed parties the green light to bring consumers beer, wine, and liquor during the lockdown days of the pandemic.

Does your state allow you to receive alcoholic beverages in the mail? Consult the following list to find out. Please note that this information does not constitute legal advice: If you’re concerned about the legality of an alcohol shipment, check your state and local laws.

Here’s how the states handle direct-to-consumer (DTC) alcohol delivery:

• Don’t allow any DTC alcohol delivery: Arkansas, Delaware, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Utah

• Allow some DTC beer and wine delivery: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin

• Allow DTC beer, wine, and liquor delivery: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming

The Consequences of Shipping Alcohol

Say we ignore all of the above and decide to take the law into our own hands. Maybe we lie to FedEx customer service about what’s in the box. When shipping alcohol, the best-case scenario is a slap on the wrist. Some people report that their packages were seized and destroyed by private agencies like UPS, while others state that the carriers dole out fines for this terms-of-service violation.

Taking on USPS is another matter; we could end up facing heftier fines and up to a year in prison for lying about shipping alcohol through the USPS. Attempting to skirt the law rarely goes well — let’s use Utah as an example. In Utah, we can be charged with a felony for shipping or receiving alcohol. This is true even if we send ourselves wine purchased legally during an international trip or if we order liquor from an online vendor.

Reputable vendors won’t allow us to input a Utah address during checkout, but mistakes happen (and shadier websites won’t check local laws). To learn how your state penalizes alcohol shipping violations, contact your state’s Department of Revenue, local county clerk’s office, your local state government representative, or a legal expert.

Mailing Alcohol: You Can’t (and You Shouldn’t!)

We hope this article has provided some helpful information about why shipping alcohol just isn’t worth it. While we may want to brighten a friend’s day with a thoughtful present, we can end up facing legal consequences instead. If you’d like to mail a loved one a bottle of their favorite bubbly, go through a licensed retailer — or, better yet, choose an alcohol-free gift!