Aug 12, 2026
The decade-long consent decree that allowed Anheuser-Busch InBev’s
(A-B) MegaBrew merger with SABMiller to go forward expired in July,
removing guardrails that had been placed on the world’s largest
beer manufacturer by the Department of Justice to ensure
competition in the marketplace.
Chris Jones, managing director of Central Market Strategies, joins
this week’s Brewbound Podcast to explore what competition looks
like in a post-consent decree beer industry.
Jones argues the consent decree did its job, creating a competitive
environment that allowed new brands over the last decade such as
Athletic Brewing, Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Boston Beer’s
Truly Hard Seltzer to become category leaders in non-alcoholic (NA)
beer and hard seltzer, respectively, while also preventing A-B
“from using its massive size as the world’s largest brewer to
disrupt the market.”
WIth the consent decree’s guardrails down, including the removal of
an independent monitor who maintained compliance by handling claims
of interference and coercion, there now exists “a lot more risk in
the system of this market power and abuses of market power that
could result from the size and scale of the largest brewer,” Jones
said.
Going forward, it will be important to track national market share
in an already “highly concentrated market” and middle-tier
consolidation in the years ahead, he added.
Listen to the full conversation with Brewbound managing editor
Jessica Infante here.
Before the conversation, Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior
reporter Zoe Licata join Jess to run through the latest news,
including Lawson’s Finest Liquids’ first NA beer, what distributors
say is on their cut lists, a distributor territory swap in the
Northeast and “warm beer takes” on the latest NFL beer
marketing.