{"id":7312,"date":"2012-08-08T08:30:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T13:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=7312"},"modified":"2021-08-27T13:46:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T18:46:31","slug":"anheuser-busch-vs-il-liquor-control-commission-in-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/anheuser-busch-vs-il-liquor-control-commission-in-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"Anheuser-Busch vs IL Liquor Control Commission; In Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
This morning an army of attorney’s representing Anheuser-Busch InBev will descend on the Michael A. Bilandic Building (pictured above) in downtown Chicago for the first substantive hearing since the Illinois Liquor Control Commission announced<\/a>, in June, it is forcing Anheuser-Busch to divest its minority stake in Illinois distributor City Beverage.<\/p>\n There are four City Beverage locations in the state. Three of those locations are in the Chicago area; Arlington Heights, Chicago and Markham. A fourth location is in downstate Bloomington.<\/p>\n Anheuser-Busch currently has a 30-percent stake in the distributor through a wholly owned subsidiary named Wholesaler Equity Development Corporation or WEDCO.<\/p>\n AB InBev’s stake in City Beverage has been a hotbed of debate for months in Illinois because of a new law, passed last summer, that clearly spelled out who could and who could not self-distribute beer in Illinois. The new law raised the question; is a brewer holding even a minority stake in a distributor against the law because it is akin to self-distribution?<\/p>\n The Liquor Control Commission, in a citation (below) delivered to A-B, said the brewing giant is in fact breaking the law.<\/p>\n