Welcome back, today is Thursday, July twenty-third, and we begin with Pernod Ricard changing tack in a three-hundred-fourteen-million-dollar tax fight in India. Pernod Ricard has pulled back from a courtroom battle over one of its largest regulatory disputes in India. According to Reuters, the French group has withdrawn its petition against a three-hundred-fourteen-million-dollar back-tax demand, and the Delhi High Court has dismissed the case as withdrawn so the company can pursue what the court called a statutory alternative remedy of appeal, through the tax authority itself. The Indian government told the judges it had no objection. Reuters reports it was not immediately clear why Pernod changed course after nine months of litigation. The stakes read straight through to the balance sheet. Reuters reports that with penalties, the total liability could top six hundred million dollars if Pernod loses. Reuters calculates that is roughly a fifth of the company's Indian revenue last year and about three times its profit, in a market Reuters says contributes close to ten percent of group sales and stands as its biggest by volume. The demand grew out of a four-year investigation. Indian authorities allege the company undervalued imported Scotch by withholding the composition and age of its blends, cutting duties under India's one hundred and fifty percent tariff, and concluded it had, in their words, intentionally complicated its disclosures using new internal malt codenames. Pernod, whose Scotch stable includes The Glenlivet, Chivas and Ballantine's, rejects any suggestion of wrongdoing and says it remains confident in its position. Per Reuters, the tax case sits alongside an antitrust matter and a separate Delhi sales ban the company is also contesting. Also today, the biggest names in American vodka are fighting for share of a pool that is shrinking. U.S. vodka volumes fell three percent last year to seventy-one point seven million cases, according to Impact Databank, with full-strength brands under pressure from ready-to-drink. That is down from a peak near eighty million cases in twenty twenty-one, back roughly to where the category sat in twenty fifteen. Even so, it remains the second-largest spirits category by volume, behind spirits-based RTDs, and the leaders are on the offensive. Tito's held about flat near twelve million cases and stayed the top spirits brand by dollar sales in NielsenIQ channels, and it has rolled out a hundred-milliliter bottle aimed at the single-serve Martini. Diageo's Smirnoff, at seven and a half million cases, leaned on its FIFA World Cup tie-in. Gallo's New Amsterdam took the third spot as the official vodka of the UFC. Sazerac's Svedka, bought from Constellation in twenty twenty-four, ran a Super Bowl ad, ranked among the fastest-growing brands by value at up sixteen percent, and has just extended into a non-carbonated Vodka Water RTD. Pernod Ricard's Absolut is leaning on its Tabasco launch, and Bacardi's Grey Goose is chasing the Martini and flavor trends. The common thread, per the report, is marketing muscle aimed at winning a bigger slice of a smaller category. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. The decade-old consent decree the Justice Department imposed on Anheuser-Busch InBev after its SABMiller takeover has expired, per Brewbound, lifting federal guardrails on the beer market and reopening questions about distribution and competition. Global beer production fell last year, but Africa bucked the trend with rising output, according to data compiled by hop supplier BarthHaas, a signal of where volume growth may be concentrating. Kweichow Moutai has raised the price of its flagship baijiu for the second time this year, The Drinks Business reports, a margin-defense move against a broader downturn in the category. Separately, Spanish wine group Vintae has completed its acquisition of Bodegas Riojanas following a court-approved restructuring plan, per Harpers, continuing consolidation among Spanish producers. And finally, a brighter read for vodka. The Spirits Business reports on a SipSource forecast projecting the category to outpace the core U.S. spirits market over the next twelve months, a potential turn after its recent volume declines.