Legislative, Government Affairs & Legal Updates

Nearly three-quarters of the available booths at the reinvented Great American Beer Festival (GABF) have been claimed. As of Tuesday, June 9, 150 breweries and cideries have registered to pour at the Brewers Association’s (BA) signature consumer-centric event, scheduled for October 10 and 11 at Levitt Pavilion in Denver, Colorado, BA VP of marketing and communications Ann Obenchain told Brewbound.

A U.S. District Court has entered a $175.5 million amended final judgment – plus $15.5 million in pre-judgment interest – against Boston Beer Company for allegedly failing to purchase contracted minimums of aluminum cans from Ardagh Metal Packaging USA between 2021 and 2025, according to a June 1 8K filed by Boston Beer.

Vermont craft brewers are one signature away from expanded self-distribution privileges. The state Senate approved a bill on May 21 that would allow malt beverage manufacturers to self-distribute up to 3,000 barrels of beer under their existing manufacturer licenses.

Following 21 months of contraction, the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) has finally returned to expansion driven by “an increase in expected distributor demand.”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) proposed legislation last week that would allow states to respectively determine the future of hemp-based product sales within their own borders.

A jury entered a $175.5 million verdict in favor of Ardagh Metal Packaging USA against Boston Beer Company for allegedly failing “to purchase contractual minimum volumes of certain aluminum beverage can containers from 2021 to 2025,” according to an 8K filed by Boston Beer Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Mark D. Anderson, the founder and former CEO of shuttered Drake’s Organic Spirits, alleging he orchestrated a years-long investor fraud scheme that raised $2.4 million.

Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter April 2-3, including headlines from the Brewers Association, Molson Coors, Sierra Nevada and more.

If there’s a stay of execution, it’ll probably be at the last minute. That’s what hemp lobbyists and industry groups are starting to believe about the potential for a reprieve from the upcoming November 12 THC ban, according to the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives (CABA).

The latest Beer Purchasers’ Index (BPI) from the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) revealed that for the first time in nearly two years, distributors are not planning to purchase less beer than the previous month.

As Congress’s November deadline ticks closer for intoxicating hemp beverage makers, states are not waiting to pass their own regulations on if and where THC drinks can be sold.

Several producers and a distributor filed an emergency lawsuit in Ohio last week in an effort to block Gov. Mike DeWine’s attempt to abruptly shut down the state’s intoxicating hemp beverage industry.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who is running in the Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, weaved local and national politics into her roughly 15-minute speech, drawing a direct line from the White House’s impact on universal issues such as affordability, tariffs and sustainable energy to the struggles felt across the Pine Tree State.

A federal grand jury has indicted five former senior executives at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits (SGWS) – the largest alcohol distributor in the U.S. – along with a salesman from a major Napa Valley wine company, on charges stemming from an alleged bribery scheme that prosecutors say ran for nearly a decade and earned favors from California’s largest grocery retail chains.