There appears to be a hint of light at the end of the tunnel in the months long dispute over Anheuser-Busch InBev, its wholly owned subsidiary WEDCO and distributor City Beverage.

The squabble centers around whether WEDCO can legally retain a 30-percent stake in City Beverage in light of legislation signed in to law last year that clarifies who can and who cannot self-distribute beer in Illinois and if WEDCO holding a minority stake in the distributor is akin to self-distribution.

Friday, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission released of a series of findings – agreed upon by commissioners – after a hearing on the issue back in December. You can find the findings below, if you’d like to give them a once-over.

According to a spokesperson for the commission the findings “can” be used to determine the next steps. And those next steps could come sometime over the summer. This jives with the expectations of Associated Beer Distributors President Bill Olson, who says the commission will likely issue a directive based on these findings – which he thinks could come as early as June.

But, according to the commission spokesperson, there is no set timeline for the commission to reach a final decision.

And it would appear they have some time. City Beverage Arlington Heights, Chicago and Markham have September and October renewal dates for their distributor and importing distributor licenses. You would think the commission would want to act by then, but in March City Beverage Bloomington’s licenses were renewed even though a resolution had not been reached. Perhaps the renewal date is not the best barometer.

To find out what is we reached out to a few beverage industry legal-types to get their thoughts on the findings. We’re still waiting to hear back from them so, in the meantime, we’ll pass along a few observations of our own.

Continue reading Beer Politics: WEDCO & City Beverage, The Findings – UPDATED