ABSTRACT

Grupo Modelo (‘Modelo’) brews a number of brands of beer, the most popular of which is Corona. The beer was, prior to 2007, imported (in recent years through its closely related intermediary Extrade SA) into the United States by two importers: Barton Beers, Ltd. (‘Barton’) and The Gambrinus Company (‘Gambrinus’). These two large organizations had each imported Modelo products into roughly half of the United States for nearly two decades, under agreements with Modelo (or its intermediaries) dated 1986, 1989, and 1994, as well as the disputed 1996 agreement.