AB InBev failed today in its latest bid to overturn a New Delhi city sales ban on its products. A local court dismissed the brewer’s appeal against a ruling from July, in which India’s number two in the beer market was banned from selling beer in India’s capital New Delhi for the next three years.
The company was accused for allegedly evading local taxes. In 2016 the local police conducted inspections and had found bottles of beer from SAB Miller which used duplicate barcodes to lower payments of excise duties. SAB Miller was acquired the same year by AB InBev which transferred the problem to the world’s leading brewer (inside.beer, 31.7.2019).
Justice Navin Chawla acknowledged that the principle of natural justice had been violated by the ban which supports the view of AB InBev’s lawyers that the company was not given adequate notice before the sales ban was imposed. However, he refused to quash or put the ban on hold and sent it back to the second appellate authority.
