uRegulators Probing AB InBev Over Allegations Of Pushing Out Craft Brewers By Buying Distributorsr

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  Despite Anheuser-Busch InBev’s attempt in recent years to get drunk on craft beer by padding its portfolio with small brewers like Golden Road, Goose Island and Blue Point Brewery, among others, the beverage behemoth is in talks with federal regulators over allegations that its recent purchase of distributors is a calculated attempt to shut the door on increasingly popular craft brews. 

  Reuters reports that the Justice Department, along with California regulators, are investigating allegations by craft brewers that AB InBev pushes its recently acquired distributors to sever ties with the smaller beer companies.

  AB InBev confirmed it was in talks with regulators about its recent purchase of five distributors in California, New York, and Colorado.

  “Anheuser-Busch has been in communication with the Department of Justice and California attorney general’s office about the transactions. We are working cooperatively to address any questions they have,” an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said.

  Sources close to the matter say the investigation, which is in early stages, was initiated after smaller brewers raised concerns that AB InBev’s purchase of distributors made it more difficult for them to distribute their brews, leading to stalling sales.

  The CEO of one Oregon craft brewer tells Reuters that after AB InBev purchased two of its distributors in 2011 and 2012, the company saw what it viewed as “healthy sales” falter before finding a new outlet.

  “Our feeling was that we weren’t getting the same level of representation,” he said. “We saw our trends drop and we have seen improvements since we’ve switched.”

  The Justice Department declined comment. The attorney generals’ offices for California, New York and Colorado did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

  Exclusive: U.S. probes allegations AB InBev seeking to curb craft beer distribution [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uKombucha Makers Pushing Government Regulators For New Alcohol Content Testsr

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  Whether you enjoy drinking fermented beverages or you think your friends are crazy for guzzling something that smells sort of like vinegar and dirt, you’re probably aware that kombucha tea is pretty popular these days. You also might know that the drinks contain a low level of alcohol, which means makers have to include a special note on their label indicating as much. Kombucha companies are now trying to convince the government to adopt new alcohol content tests, claiming that the current system spurs fines and enforcement actions from regulators needlessly.

  Kombucha fans have brought the drink into the mainstream in the last five years, with sales increasing almost five times between 2013 and 2015, reports the Associated Press, citing retail analysts at Markets and Markets.

  Because the fermentation process can give the drink too much alcohol for it to be legally sold to minors as a non-alcoholic beverage, it’s up to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to enforce laws that require labels on any products containing more than 0.5% alcohol.

  Recently, the bureau sent fine letters to an undisclosed number of kombucha makers nationwide, said a spokesman, without specifying how many products failed alcohol tests or how many companies were fined.

  “What we’re concerned about here is that when a consumer picks up a product, they know the product is alcoholic,” the spokesman said.

  But kombucha brewers don’t want the tea to be compared to alcoholic drinks, and are urging the agency to use a new alcohol test that’s specific to fermented drinks, instead of the commonly used test to determine alcohol by volume. That system doesn’t account for naturally occurring sediment in kombucha, say producers of the drinks.

  “We’re working on a more accurate test that will show people that kombucha is not an alcoholic beverage,” said Hannah Crum, head of the Los Angeles-based Kombucha Brewers International group, an industry advocate.

  While the ATTTB says it’s interested in such a test, in the meantime, it says it won’t stop issuing fines when it gets reports of products that exceed alcohol limits using the existing tests.

  Kombucha makers say that 0.5% threshold is too low to intoxicate people, arguing it’s the same level fruits could naturally reach by sitting on the shelf too long. If it ages and isn’t refrigerated, a kombucha drink can creep up to 1% alcohol. Still, that’s not enough to regulate it like alcohol, argued Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado in a letter to the bureau last month asking it to take it easy on some fined kombucha makers.

  “Eight spoiled kombuchas are roughly the equivalent of one beer, but that doesn’t mean we should regulate it like we do alcohol — it makes absolutely no sense,” Polis wrote.

  As kombucha sales boom, makers ask feds for new alcohol test [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uGameStop Proudly Announces It Will Not Sell You Video Games On Thanksgivingr

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  If you wanted to get away from your family this Thanksgiving and buy video games and/or video game accessories, you’ll have to do it somewhere other than GameStop. The chain announced today that it will not be open on Nov. 26.

  The company will be opening early on Black Friday morning though, with plans to open at 5 a.m. It will also keep its online store open during the holiday.

  GameStop, a family of specialty retail brands that makes the most popular technologies affordable and simple, announced today that once again its U.S. stores will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

  “We believe strongly that our customers and associates should have the opportunity to spend the Thanksgiving holiday relaxing with family and friends,” said Mike Buskey, GameStop’s president for its U.S. stores, “We know this is in stark contrast to what many other retailers are doing, but we are taking a stance to protect family time during this important holiday.”

  GameStop’s announcement comes shortly after Staples said that it too would remain closed on Thanksgiving with the plan of opening early on Black Friday.

  Of course, we’re not even halfway through October yet, so expect a lot more announcements from retailers about whether or not they will be open this Thanksgiving.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uCounty Ticketing Cars For Lapsed Inspections While They Are At Garage To Be Inspectedr

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  Talk about low-hanging fruit… If you’re on the hunt for cars that have lapsed inspection stickers, where are you most likely to find them? Probably outside of garages that perform inspections. Garage operators in one Virginia county say they are being unfairly hassled by a zealous parking enforcement officer — to the point where one mechanic was arrested for allegedly assaulting the ticket-giver.

  The Washington Post has the story of garage operators who work in a business park in Fairfax County, VA, not far from D.C., and who say that the county has been coming onto private property for years to issue citations for vehicles with lapsed inspections when those vehicles were there to be inspected.

  On operator says his customers have been hit with around $60,000 in fines since 2009. Some of the garages choose to pay for the tickets themselves because they don’t want to lose the long-term business of the customers.

  “I don’t want to give them a bill for repairs and add on $50 for a ticket,” explains one local businessman, who says he’s paid $2,200 in tickets in a single month. “You think they’ll come back?”

  He explains that he now tries to do all inspection work first thing in the morning to lessen the chances of a car being ticketed, but since not every car passes the inspection or emissions test, it has to be put off to the side while it’s waiting for repair; thus putting it at risk for a ticket.

  Things have gotten so bad, say the mechanics, that when they hear of a parking enforcement agent on the campus’s grounds there’s a scramble to hide all the past-inspection vehicles indoors. While that’s happening, no work is getting done on other cars.

  When one operator snatched a ticket from the hand of an enforcement officer in 2014, he was eventually charged with felony assault of a police officer — even though the woman in this case is not a cop. A judge sentenced him to four days in jail, but on appeal a jury acquitted him of the charges.

  So why are enforcement officers patrolling the lots and streets of a private business campus? The county says back in 2009, the park’s management firm granted county police permission to enforce local traffic, parking and towing ordinances.

  “Why aren’t they barking up their property manager’s tree?” a county police rep asks the Post. “That is their business. Without that letter, we have no authority — none — to be in that parking lot.”

  But the attorney for the mechanic charged with assault argues that just because the county can issue parking tickets in the business park doesn’t mean they have to ticket cars that aren’t illegally parked and are awaiting inspection.

  “There’s no law against using common sense,” he contends.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uMichigan Lawmakers Considering Ban On Products That Contain Microbeadsr

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  Although there’s yet to be a successful bill that bans plastic microbeads in beauty products nationwide, individual states are continuing to pile onto the bead-free bandwagon: soon after California passed legislation that prohibits the tiny plastic bits in consumer products, lawmakers in Michigan’s House are trying to push a similar bill, amid environmental concerns.

  The tiny plastic particles are often used in products to help scrub anything from your teeth to your skin. But all those millions of beads end up in lakes, oceans and rivers, where they can then be eaten by fish. Ostensibly, you could catch a fish and eat the microbead that once exfoliated your skin in a body wash. By the time it gets to you, that bead could’ve picked up toxic contaminants.

  There have been large amounts of microbeads showing up in lakes Erie, Huron and Superior, prompting the Michigan House of Representatives to consider a ban, reports the Detroit Free Press.

  “The Great Lakes are too important to the people of the state of Michigan to continue a practice that could have such an adverse impact,” Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Deputy Director Maggie Pallone told the Michigan House Natural Resources Committee last week. “It’s a clear issue and clear threat to the fish in the Great Lakes.”

  Sponsors of the bill in Michigan are pushing to get a law in place so that by the time the industry puts a voluntary ban in place, it’ll be mandatory anyway. A vote could come on the bill after lawmakers look at the concerns presented at the hearing, said state Rep. Andrea LaFontaine, the committee chairwoman.

  Other Great Lakes states have already passed bans — Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana — that will see microbead products phased out of beauty products sold in those states by 2018. Along with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland and New Jersey also have bans going into effect in the coming years.

  It isn’t just an issue for state governments and activists: several major manufacturers, such as Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive, have pledged to phase out use of plastic microbeads.

  In February 2014, L’Oréal said it would begin phasing out the materials this year in their Biotherm products and continue with Body Shop products in 2015. All of the company’s products are expected to be microbead-free by 2017.

  Michigan House looks to ban products with microbeads [Detroit Free Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFacebook Testing A Dedicated Shopping Feed That Features Retailers’ Posts About Salesr

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  Facebook is continuing its effort to push users to shop within the confines of the social network, announcing today that it’s testing a dedicated shopping feed that will feature deals and sales from different retailers’ pages.

  The Shopping feed will feature posts and photos about products on sale from different retailers “in a single place for people to more easily discover, share and purchase products,” Facebook announced in a blog post about a number of other changes its made to help retailers connect with customers.

  The Shopping section will only include a “small group” of retailers for now, Matt Idema, head of monetization product marketing at Facebook told Re/code, including businesses that are trying out the social network’s new “Shop section” on their Pages. Within that tab, companies can choose to link to their own retail websites or test a way for shoppers to buy directly within Facebook.

  

  A limited number of users are included in the test, according to Emma Rodgers, Facebook’s product and marketing lead for mobile app ads and commerce told TechCrunch. Users included in the test will be able to access the feed through the Favorites section of the Facebook app’s navigation menu. The products you see in that section will be customized depending on your interests.

  Rodgers says a survey showed that 50% of Facebook users head to the social network looking for products, so the dedicated feed could help highlight items they’re interested in, separate from the deluge of posts by friends and family in the main feed.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBroadcasters Ask FCC To Halt Merger Of Time Warner Cable & Charterr

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• While Time Warner Cable’s current merger à trois with Charter and Bright House is getting significantly less attention than TWC’s recent failed fling with Comcast, but these nuptials aren’t without their detractors.

  While many people took today to celebrate and ruminate on Columbus’ accidental non-discovery of land near the United States, the National Association of Broadcasters filed a petition [PDF] with the Federal Communications Commission asking it to suspend its ongoing review of the three-way telecom tie-up — at least until the FCC reformed its rules on broadcast TV ownership.

  “The Commission has no legal or public policy basis for continuing to approve pay-TV mergers that tilt the competitive playing field against local broadcast TV stations subject to asymmetric FCC regulations uniquely disfavoring locally-oriented free television services,” reads the petition.

  Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to regularly review its rules and “repeal or modify any regulation it determines to be no longer in the public interest.” That review is long overdue, says the NAB, which believes there are a number of rules in place that unfairly favor cable companies.

  One of the big issues involves rules that effectively block local TV operators from jointly selling advertising airtime in the same market. The NAB argues that pay-TV providers are not bound by such a rule and can unfairly “create a single platform for local and national advertisers.”

  And this imbalance only increases when the FCC approves pay-TV consolidation, contends the petition. The proposed merger, which the NAB estimates would consolidate 79% of pay-TV subscribers in the hands of just four providers, would, according to the petition, “be able to compete more vigorously for advertising than a broadcast TV station prohibited from entering into even a single joint agreement for the sale of advertising. Approval of the merger will therefore further undermine economic support for the public’s free TV option.”

  In the petition the NAB rails against the “creation of yet another pay-TV behemoth” that it believes “would further competitively disadvantage local broadcast stations kept by outdated ownership rules from achieving a fraction of the vital economies of scale and scope” that these pay-TV providers enjoy.

  The broadcast trade group argues that there is no public benefit to allowing this merger to go forward.

  “[T]he competitive hobbling of free broadcast TV services only leaves viewers more dependent on increasingly expensive subscription services offered by companies with abysmal customer service ratings,” reads the petition. “Because a viable, free over-the-air broadcast service is more important than ever in an era of consolidated pay-TV providers that consistently raise consumer prices above the rate of inflation, the Commission should not consider yet another massive pay-TV merger,” until it completes review of, and reforms, the broadcast ownership rules.

  “If the Commission refuses to reform its broadcast-only ownership restrictions to reflect current competitive realities, however, then it should deny the proposed merger,” concludes the NAB.

  [via MultiChannel News]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist