Welcome in, today is Thursday, August thirteenth, and we begin with Diageo in the Bombay High Court, where Business Standard reports the company is now arguing India's rum prohibition order was issued without due process. Following our earlier report on United Spirits taking the FSSAI flavouring order to court, we now have the substance of its case. Business Standard reports the Diageo India unit is challenging a prohibition order on McDowell's Number One Celebration Matured Triple X Rum, made at its Baramati plant in Maharashtra, on the grounds that the action skipped the process the law lays down. Per that account, the company told the court the food safety officer who issued the order did not have the legal authority to do so, and that the regulator relied on a food analyst's report instead of the statutory adjudicatory route. Court filings reviewed by Reuters describe continuing the prohibition while FSSAI was still consulting the industry on flavouring rules as, quote, premature, disproportionate and commercially prejudicial. The court heard the matter briefly on Monday, granted no immediate relief, and asked the Union government to respond by August nineteenth. Industry reaction leans toward a corrective framing, that the orders read as scoped to specific variants and batches rather than blanket brand bans. What the court settles is how far a single officer can halt sales on a analyst's report, and that question sits over every IMFL producer, not one plant. Now to the UK, where the rate of brewery closures slowed in the first half of this year against the same period in twenty twenty-five. That reading comes from the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates, through its UK Brewery Tracker, reported by Harpers. The trade body's summary does not attach a figure to the slowdown. Reaction in the channel leans cautious rather than celebratory. A slower closure rate is widely read as stabilisation at a low base rather than recovery, with the headline still describing a net loss of sites, and several observers stress that regional divergence is wide, some areas returning to growth while others keep contracting. A recurring point is that the operators being lost are not obviously the weak ones, which points at demand and cost pressure rather than a shakeout. One caveat raised in the same discussion is that a brewery closing and its attached taproom surviving are being treated as the same event in coverage. Separately, Australia's spirits excise has stepped up again. From Monday, the rate reached one hundred and ten Australian dollars and fifteen cents per litre of pure alcohol, about seventy-seven dollars fifty US, according to The Spirits Business. The Drinks Business, covering the same increase on spirits and ready-to-drink products, calls it one of the largest six-month rises outside the Covid period. That is the number that flows straight into shelf and on-premise pricing, because each indexation step compounds on the last rather than resetting. The Spirits Business also carries warnings from industry voices that the burden pushes drinkers toward black-market alternatives. Treat that as a claim from the trade rather than a measured effect, since no official data confirming substitution has been published. Also today, an argument about where own-label wine is heading. European Supermarket Magazine reports that Europe's grocers are pushing own-label beyond budget staples into premium tiers, which puts private label into the price bands branded producers lean on for margin. The piece cites Portugal's Pingo Doce, which says it has expanded its own-label range into more premium segments, highlighting specific grape varieties and high-value regions, and adjusted its fixture for clearer segmentation across price tiers and occasions. In that reporting, IWSR's Daniel Mettyear says the firm is picking up a broader trend of supermarkets premiumising own-label, with the approach varying by market. His colleague Humphrey Serjeantson expects the move to higher-priced wine to continue alongside falling volumes. The same account cites Circana data showing private-label wine and Champagne outgrowing national brands in value across Europe's six largest FMCG markets. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Following the first-half results we covered, Campari's chief executive expects portfolio streamlining to be complete by twenty twenty-seven, after the latest tequila and cognac divestments, per The Spirits Business. Nine Canadian provinces have signed an agreement allowing direct-to-consumer alcohol sales, nearly two months after the initial deadline, The Spirits Business reports. Carlsberg will take on PepsiCo bottling in Azerbaijan from January twenty twenty-seven, extending that partnership to fifteen markets, according to European Supermarket Magazine. And finally, Diageo's agreed sale of East African Breweries to Asahi has hit a major roadblock, with multiple lawsuits filed to stop it going through, per The Drinks Business.