AB InBev

AB InBev continued to cooperate with authorities between 2023 and 2025 and provided sensitive business information, including details of incentives it provided, before realising in November last year ​it was now itself under investigation, the filing said.

CASE also highlights the company’s 2013 settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over its purchase of a controlling interest in the Mexican beer manufacturer, Grupo Modelo. As part of the settlement, AB InBev was allowed to complete the $20 billion deal, but the DOJ required them to sell the U.S. rights for Modelo beer to Constellation Brands to prevent a beer monopoly in the U.S. market. Any Modelo bought in the United States is legally owned by Constellation Brands.

On Jan. 31, 2013, the department filed an antitrust lawsuit against ABI and Modelo alleging that ABI’s $20.1 billion acquisition of the remaining interest in Modelo that ABI did not already own, as originally proposed, would substantially lessen competition in the market for beer in the United States as a whole and in at least 26 metropolitan areas across the United States. The department alleged that the transaction would result in consumers paying more for beer and would limit innovation in the beer market.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is no stranger to paying massive sums in fines and penalties to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in the U.S., when it comes to operating in its traditionally cutthroat manner. Still, even among the usual violations for the world’s largest beer company, cutting a $5 million check is nothing to sneeze at. That’s what AB InBev will be paying the TTB, as the result of an offer-in-compromise (OIC) that will resolve the latest round of alleged trade practice violations. It will be a new record; the largest OIC that the TTB has ever collected. The company’s importer and wholesaler permits were likewise briefly suspended in Littleton and Denver, Colorado.

The Air District has fined(756 Kb PDF, 6 pgs, posted 4/7/2026) Anheuser-Busch $2.3 million for multiple air quality violations at its brewery in Fairfield.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is under investigation by Belgium’s antitrust watchdog amid concerns that the world’s biggest brewer abused its dominant position through its supply deals with wholesalers, restaurants and bars.

<table> <thead> <tr> <th>Cycle</th> <th>Total</th> <th>Democrats</th> <th>% to Dems</th> <th>Republicans</th> <th>% to Repubs</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2024</td> <td>$1,221,409</td> <td>$300,610</td> <td>36.60%</td> <td>$520,794</td> <td>63.40%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2022</td> <td>$1,197,002</td> <td>$491,182</td> <td>54.69%</td> <td>$406,985</td> <td>45.31%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2020</td> <td>$1,287,949</td> <td>$563,379</td> <td>56.57%</td> <td>$432,502</td> <td>43.43%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2018</td> <td>$1,281,828</td> <td>$511,790</td> <td>45.10%</td> <td>$623,029</td> <td>54.90%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2016</td> <td>$1,209,649</td> <td>$525,879</td> <td>45.25%</td> <td>$636,200</td> <td>54.75%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2014</td> <td>$947,319</td> <td>$419,656</td> <td>45.68%</td> <td>$499,053</td> <td>54.32%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2012</td> <td>$1,440,354</td> <td>$600,168</td> <td>42.16%</td> <td>$823,326</td> <td>57.84%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2010</td> <td>$1,309,086</td> <td>$733,750</td> <td>56.21%</td> <td>$571,700</td> <td>43.79%</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2008</td> <td>$2,181,683</td> <td>$1,221,538</td>

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Anheuser-Busch InBev has agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and chilled a whistleblower who reported the misconduct.

Three weeks later, the PAC for Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, made $20,000 in political donations, all to Republicans members of Congress who appeared to have steered clear of the brouhaha.*

Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney by creating a beer can with her face on it, which she shared in March with her 10 million TikTok followers, using the hashtag #budlightpartner—but executives have said “misinformation” and a misunderstanding of the campaign has fueled the intense controversy that followed.

Still, after the backlash Anheuser-Busch faced when it brought back its LGBTQ+ supportive rainbow cans in 2022, the company could have seen the warning signs. That move was followed by Bud Light partnering with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney for what should have been a small, under-the-radar outreach effort to increase the brand's sales to Mulvaney's followers and the broader LGBTQ+ community.

“AB InBev stifles the competition to advance its interests by combining sophisticated and well-funded political, lobbying, advertising machines,” CASE states, pointing to the millions spent on federal lobbying efforts and the company’s shift in marketing after the Bud Light boycott triggered by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Anheuser Busch, now a part of an international firm known as Anheuser Busch InBev, issued a statement after the trial saying the company is pleased with the verdict and “the jury`s acknowledgment that Francine Katz was always treated and compensated fairly during her 20 years of employment at Anheuser Busch.”

The deal covers 5,000 unionized employees at Anheuser-Busch, including brewers, packagers, and warehouse workers, and provides wage increases totaling 23% over the life of the contract, plus a $2,500 ratification bonus, the union said. It also improves health care and retirement benefits, and job security, the union said.

Total Spending $4.14M

$1,221,409

$1,221,409

Ranks More info 112 of 9,200 in 2024

$5,290,000

After the 2008 merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev, thousands of workers were laid off in St. Louis, Missouri, where the brewery was originally founded in 1852. The merger, which led to cost-cutting in the marketing department, also had a significant impact on the local ad agencies that had long worked with the company. When InBev moved the marketing department to New York City, the St. Louis advertising agencies were “decimated.”

The suit was filed last October by Stateside, the maker of the wildly popular canned cocktail brand Surfside Iced Teas and Lemonades. The Philadelphia-based company accused AB InBev of copying its packaging and design elements with the competing launch of Skimmers, a vodka iced tea that debuted shortly after Surfside was announced as one of the fastest-growing brands in the industry.

AB InBev is lobbying U.S. states to repeal a sales tax on its products. CASE says the company will try to replicate this effort at the federal level, as President Donald Trump renegotiates the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. (RELATED: Why The Trump Admin Shelved His Signature Trade Deal)