TTB

Non-carbonated hard sports drinks may look and taste similar to Gatorade, Powerade and Body Armour, but they are forbidden from making health-related claims or even calling themselves sports drinks, McDermott, Will & Schulte partner Alva Mather reminded attendees during a recent webinar.

Federal agencies could use the Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits bribery probe as a “template” for future investigations into middle-tier pay-to-play schemes, McDermott Will & Schulte partner Julian André shared during the law firm’s webinar last week.

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS) has entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the justice department and federal regulators to pay $12.5 million, resolving a probe into a years-long scheme to bribe alcohol buyers from California’s largest grocery chains.

Before the legacy craft brewery was resurrected earlier this year, 21st Amendment (21A) seems to have run up a sizable tab with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

Brewers and other bev-alc manufacturers stand to face serious inconveniences if the federal government shuts down at the end of today (September 30), industry trade groups have cautioned.

Several bev-alc trade groups, including the Brewers Association (BA) and Beer Institute (BI), submitted comments to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) last week, raising concerns over notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding nutrition and allergen labeling on wine, distilled spirits and malt beverages.

Domestic beer shipments are off to a rough start in 2025. U.S. beer shipments declined -8.7% year-over-year (YoY) in January 2025, as brewers shipped 10.55 million barrels, according to estimates of domestic tax paid shipments from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), shared by the Beer Institute (BI). The decline amounted to more than 1 million fewer barrels being shipped YoY.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has approved 13 new standards of fill for wine, including 16 oz. and 19.2 oz. packages, allowing producers – including hard cider and mead producers – to participate in the increasingly popular formats with offerings 7% ABV and above.

The deadline to file written comments in the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s review of potential rules and regulations changes for alcoholic beverage labeling and advertising is set to expire this Friday (March 29). Among the changes under consideration are mandatory disclosures for alcohol content, nutritional information, ingredients and major allergens.

Domestic tax paid shipments increased +1.8% in January 2024 versus January 2023, marking the first year-over-year (YoY) increase since February 2023, according to the Beer Institute (BI), citing estimates from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

The beer industry’s trade groups have been a (mostly) united front in recent years, with leadership from the Beer Institute (BI), Brewers Association (BA) and National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) sharing the stage several times to promote the need for a unified industry and banding together to advocate and pass the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) in 2017 and made permanent in 2020.

Leaders representing 22 independent wholesalers submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) Thursday, expressing concern over the marketing and sale of bev-alc products co-created by large soft drink companies such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has accepted offers in compromises from a pair of Midwestern beer wholesalers for entering into sponsorship agreements that “allegedly resulted in the unlawful exclusion of their competitors’ products,” the agency announced today.

Stone Brewing Company has agreed to pay a more than $1.8 million offer in compromise to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for alleged violations related to tax reporting and payments.