A wholesale dealer in liquors who sells, or offers for sale, distilled spirits, wines, or beer, and a wholesale dealer in beer who sells, or offers for sale, only beer, whether to dealers or to persons other than dealers, at any place where the wholesale dealer in liquors or beer has appropriately registered under this part, is exempt from registration at that place as a retail dealer in liquors or in beer.

(a) Sales of wines. Any wholesale dealer in liquors (including the proprietor of a bonded wine cellar) who has registered as a wholesale dealer in liquors for the place from which that dealer conducts selling operations may consummate sales of wines to other wholesale or retail dealers in liquors, or to limited retail dealers, at the purchasers' places of business without having to register again as a wholesale dealer on account of those sales.

(b) Sales of beer. Any wholesale dealer in liquors who has already registered as such may also consummate sales of beer to wholesale or retail dealers in beer, to wholesale or retail dealers in liquors, or to limited retail dealers, at the purchasers' place of business without having to register again as a wholesale dealer on account of those sales.

Any dealer who has registered as a wholesale dealer in beer for the place from which that dealer conducts selling operations may consummate sales of beer (but not wines or distilled spirits) to other dealers at the purchasers' places of business without having to register again as a wholesale dealer on account of those sales.

Hospitals and similar institutions furnishing liquors to patients are not required to register or keep records under this part, provided that no specific or additional charge is made for the liquors so furnished.

(a) Sales by limited retail dealers. Limited retail dealers, as described in § 31.35, are not required to register or keep records under this part.

(b) Sales to limited retail dealers. Retail dealers in liquors or beer who make sales at their registered places of business to limited retail dealers are not required under this part, solely by virtue of those sales, to register or keep records as wholesale dealers.

A single sale of distilled spirits, wines, or beer, or a single sale of one or more warehouse receipts for distilled spirits, unattended by circumstances showing the person making the sale to be engaged in that activity as a business, does not subject the vendor to the registration and other requirements of this part.

Certain persons making casual sales of liquors are not dealers for purposes of this part and therefore are not required to register, keep records, or submit a report as required of dealers under this part. These persons are:

(a) Administrators, executors, receivers, and other fiduciaries who receive liquors in their fiduciary capacities and sell them in one parcel or at public auction in parcels of not less than 20 wine gallons (75.7 liters);

(b) Creditors who receive liquors as security for, or in payment of, debts and sell them in one parcel or at a public auction in parcels of not less than 20 wine gallons (75.7 liters);

(c) Public officers or court officials who levy on liquors under order or process of any court or magistrate and sell them in one parcel or at public auction in parcels of not less than 20 wine gallons (75.7 liters); and

(d) A retiring partner, or representative of a deceased partner, who sells liquors to the incoming or remaining partner, or partners, of a partnership.

Certain persons may sell liquors as agents or employees of others (principals), or may receive and transmit orders therefor to a dealer, without being considered a dealer on account of those activities. Those persons, who have no property rights in the liquors sold, may make collections for their principals and receive commissions for their services, or may guarantee the payment of accounts, without being required to register or keep records under this part. In all such cases, however, the principal is required to register and keep records, as provided in this part, at each place where sales are consummated, unless the principal is exempt from those requirements under the provisions of this subpart. The persons covered by this section are:

(a) Auctioneers who merely sell liquors at auction on behalf of others;

(b) Agents or brokers who solicit orders for liquors in the name of a principal, but who neither stock nor deliver the liquors for which orders are taken;

(c) Employees who merely sell liquors on behalf of their employers; and

(d) Retail dealers in liquors or retail dealers in beer who merely receive and transmit to a wholesale dealer orders for liquors or beer to be billed, charged, and shipped to customers by such wholesale dealers.

Apothecaries and druggists who use wines or spirituous liquors for compounding medicines and in making tinctures that are unfit for use for beverage purposes are not considered to be dealers by reason of the sale of those compounds or tinctures for nonbeverage purposes.

(a) Vendors not deemed to be dealers. No person selling or offering for sale for nonbeverage purposes products qualifying as unfit for use for beverage purposes under § 19.5 of this chapter shall be deemed, solely by reason of such sales, to be a dealer.

(b) Restrictions. Any person who sells or offers for sale any nonbeverage products for use, or for sale for use, for beverage purposes, or who sells any of such products under circumstances in which it might reasonably appear that it is the intention of the purchaser to procure the product for sale or use for beverage purposes, must register and keep records as required under this part as a wholesale dealer in liquors, retail dealer in liquors, wholesale dealer in beer, or retail dealer in beer, as appropriate.

No retail dealer in liquors or retail dealer in beer shall be deemed to be a wholesale dealer in liquors or a wholesale dealer in beer by virtue of selling in liquidation that dealer's entire stock of liquors in one parcel, or in parcels, each of which embraces not less than the entire stock of distilled spirits, of wines, or of beer, which parcels may contain a combination of any or all such liquors, to any other dealer. A retail dealer making such sale or sales is not required to register or to keep records or submit reports of those sales.

No retail dealer in liquors or retail dealer in beer, or other person, shall be deemed to be a wholesale dealer in liquors or a wholesale dealer in beer by virtue of a bona fide return of distilled spirits, wines, or beer to the dealer from whom the distilled spirits, wines, or beer were purchased (or to the successor of such vendor's business or line of merchandise) for credit, refund, or exchange; and the giving of such credit, refund or exchange shall not be deemed to be a purchase within the meaning of § 31.141 of this part. Except in the case of wholesale dealers in liquors required to keep records of their transactions under §§ 31.155 and 31.156, or retail dealers required to keep records under § 31.171, persons returning liquors as provided in this section are not required to keep records or submit reports of such transactions.