Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, met with a group of craft brewers Friday in Portland to hear their concerns over the merger of two of the world’s largest beer brands.
Senator Wyden tells Oregon craft brewers that he'll make sure the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission hear their concerns about big beer merger.
Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB News
Earlier this week, the world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch, formalized a deal to acquire the second biggest brewer SABMiller — for more than $100 billion.
Van Havig of Portland's Gigantic Brewing Company said he’s worried about maintaining access to the market place.
“When you get one brewer that’s so big, and controls so much of the market, they can lean on the distributors and tell the distributors what to do,” said Havig.
Wyden asked the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this week to make sure the concerns of craft brewers are considered during the merger approval process.
Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller have said they don’t expect the merger to significantly change the U.S. market.