US beer drinkers are overpaying for their booze by $500 million a year

Two brewing companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors, account for two-thirds of the $94.1 billion beer market in the US. The lack of competition is one of the factors forcing beer drinkers to pay more for their beer, a new Treasury department report has found.

Collectively, beer drinkers pay up to $478 million per year more than they should, according to the report [PDF], which was commissioned as part of the Biden administration’s executive order, issued last July, to assess the state of competitiveness in many sectors including the beer, wine, and spirits market.

“States might explore changes [in liquor laws] to eliminate anticompetitive effects and to bolster competition,” the report recommends. “Additionally, the [Federal Trade Commission] and the Antitrust Division should continue their antitrust scrutiny of the alcohol markets.”

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