The Beer Store is under serious fire these days. First, Kathleen Wynne advisor and high profile Toronto banker Ed Clark suggested that the conglomerate should have to pay more money to main its monopoly, and then a pub owner in Burlington filed a class action lawsuit against the company. Even a move on the Beer Store's part to open up its ownership opportunities appears to have mollified few.

Now, another lawsuit has been launched against The Beer Store monopoly, this time by local lawyer and entrepreneur Michael Hassell, who wishes to open a number of stores specializing in craft beer, but is unable to do so under current provincial law. The suit characterizes the current legislation as "an unreasonable restraint of trade, contrary to equitable principles of fairness."

It remains to be seen if Hassell will have any luck taking this longstanding monopoly, but the challenges are starting to add up, and that's got to pose at least some worry to the folks who benefit from the current structure of beer sales in Ontario.

Photo by Steve Chui in the blogTO Flickr pool.