BrewDog drops legal action against Portman
Scottish micro-brewer BrewDog has dropped its threat of legal action against industry watchdog the Portman Group.
BrewDog had threatened to begin defamation action against Portman over claims that it is “profiteering from the scourge of illegal drugs, mocking the misery caused by misuse”.
The running battle between the two reached fever-pitch when Portman banned its Speedball beer last month, claiming it was associated with illicit drugs.
Portman said Speedball is the name given to the potentially lethal practice of combining heroin and crack cocaine to give both sedative and stimulant effects.
But BrewDog claims it released the beer in August to deliberately provoke Portman after it investigated, but later cleared, its three best selling beers — Riptide, Punk IPA and Hop Rocker.
However, BrewDog said it now wanted to draw a line under the spat.
“Brewdog have dropped their threat of legal action,” said Portman chief executive David Poley. “They’ve informed us that they want to draw a line under this dispute.
“Marketing alcohol on the theme with illegal drugs is completely indefensible. Therefore, any legal action by them would have been hotly contested by us. We’re pleased that the company has decided to concentrate on selling responsibly marketed products.”
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