Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau accepted a $5 million Offer in Compromise (OIC) — the largest in the agency’s history — from Anheuser-Busch, LLC (“A-B”) for alleged violations of the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act. Additionally, A-B served a two-day suspension of its importer and wholesaler permits in Littleton, Colorado, and a four-day suspension of its importer and wholesaler permits in Denver, Colorado.
Serving suspensions and paying an Offer in Compromise is rare, TTB told us.
Specifically, TTB alleges that A-B violated the FAA Act trade practice laws set forth in 27 U.S.C. § 205 by:
- Entering into sponsorship agreements with various entities in the sports and entertainment industries requiring concessionaires and other retailers to purchase A-B’s malt beverages and prohibiting them from purchasing specific competitor brands;
- Inducing sports industry concessionaires to purchase A-B’s malt beverages by furnishing fixtures, equipment, and services;
- Reimbursing, through credit card swipes, retailers for the cost of installing malt beverage draft dispensing systems, thereby inducing them to purchase A-B’s malt beverages;
- Requiring retailers to purchase A-B’s malt beverages in return for such retailers’ use of equipment A-B furnished them free of charge or below market value;
- Using third parties (business entities and payment services) to provide money or things of value to retailers in exchange for placement of A-B’s malt beverages; and
- Paying retailers purportedly for items such as consumer samplings, when, in fact, the retailers did not receive the goods or services purportedly purchased, and such payments were actually for A-B product placement.
This $5 million OIC resolves any such alleged violations that may have taken place throughout the United States through July 2, 2020, TTB said.