Rosalkogoltabakcontrol failed for the third time to close the Yuzhny Pivovar brewery

According to the court file, the Arbitration Court of the Rostov region suspended the brewery’s operation in May as an interim measure in the framework of claims to exclude the company from the Register of producers of beer and beer-based drinks, cider, poire and mead. The court documents indicate that the reason was claims against the main equipment that was not allocated when calculating the production capacity and, therefore, the calculation of the equipment capacity exceeded 300 thousand decilitres. After the publication of the RB.RU material, the court revised its decision and canceled the interim measures. The court documents indicate that interim measures were taken before the company was included in the register. The service did not challenge the cancellation.

In July, the court again rejected Rosalkogoltabakcontrol and refused to exclude the service from the register, which would have led to its closure. According to the court, the violations were eliminated, but the service appealed this decision, the next hearing is scheduled for October 15.

Rosalkogoltabakcontrol did not comment on the legal proceedings until they were over. RB.RU reported that more than ten organisations had already been removed from the register.

“There are currently several dozen cases underway. More than ten organisations have been excluded from the register,” Rosalkogoltabakkontrol explained.

Managing Partner of Alcohol Law Firm Dmitry Terentyev commented on the legal proceedings for RB.RU. According to the lawyer, Rosalkogolcontrol is likely to lose the case.

According to the expert, the reason for the exclusion of Yuzhny Pivovar from the register was the unreliable information provided by the organization to calculate the capacity of its products. On September 1, all manufacturers were entered into the register automatically, without providing a capacity calculation, in accordance with Federal Law No. 108-FZ.

A 90-day deadline was set for calculating the production capacity of those producers who received permission to use a production capacity of no more than 300 thousand decilitres before February 26, 2019. One of these producers turned out to be Yuzhny Pivovar, which received permission in 2014. The company submitted a calculation of production capacity, but made a mistake in the calculations by not including a cylindrical-conical tank. The error was discovered during an on-site inspection in March 2024. Rosalkogoltabakcontrol is obliged to file a request for deregistration with the court, and this was done, the expert said. In turn, the brewer resubmitted the calculation, having performed it correctly, taking into account the technological process.

“The most important thing in this story is that as a result of checking the calculation data, Rosalkogoltabakcontrol accepted them and made changes to the register based on its decision No. R-RP-515 dated May 31, 2024. All these documents were submitted to the court and, accordingly, the court correctly understood the situation and removed the interim measures and subsequently rejected Rosalkogoltabakcontrol’s claims on the grounds that Yuzhny Brewery independently eliminated the violations. The first instance decision will most likely be upheld on appeal,” Terentyev explained.

Vice President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers (FRiO) of Russia Alexey Nebolsin RB.RU previously claimed that Rosalkogoltabakcontrol first conducts inspections to “clean” non-working companies from the register, which is absolutely correct. In fact, some brewers have not been working for a long time and it is “not clear who” can produce beer under their auspices.

First, the service is filing complaints against brewers who do not have long-term leases for premises. Nebolsin added that when producers who do not have their own premises begin to be removed from the market, the industry will lose the original companies. There are already precedents of attempts to deregister companies due to problems with premises, but so far “they are trying to solve the problems in their own way.”

“And this question will arise sooner or later. We will categorically support brewers in this matter,” promised the FRiO vice president.

According to Rosstat data, the production of beer-based beverages in Russia in the first half of 2024 reached its highest level since 2013. In January-June, it increased by 7.3% to 451.4 thousand decilitres, the highest level since 2013, when 451.9 thousand decilitres were produced. According to Rosalkogoltabakcontrol, in the first half of 2024, beer production increased by 9.3%, beer-based beverages by 13.4%, cider, poiré and mead by 17.4%.

According to experts, the Register of Beer and Beer, Cider, Poiret and Mead Beverages was introduced in September 2023, in order to be included in which producers had to abandon the practice of underestimating the production volume of beer beverages. If such a violation is committed, the manufacturer may be excluded from the register and production of the product may be stopped, RB.RU wrote.