'Free' wine kiosks cost Pa. $300K in legal fees

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has spent almost $300,000 defending a claim by a company that supplied the supermarket wine kiosks before it was aborted because the machines were unpopular, a newspaper reported.

The legal fees were reported Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in a story updating the status of the litigation by Simple Brands LLC. The newspaper obtained the legal bills in a public records request.

The Montgomery County company is pursuing the matter before the LCB’s Board of Claims in Harrisburg, saying the LCB essentially forced it out of business at a loss of $81 million. The company also says the LCB is delaying the litigation unnecessarily.

But LCB attorney Dean Piermattel said the company took six months to respond to the LCB’s request for records, and last month produced more than 126,000 pages, which LCB attorneys are still reviewing.