USA: Federal regulators have rejected Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.'s complaints about the advertising campaigns of beer-making rival Miller Brewing Co., Miller said on April 13, according to Associated Press. Tuesday's ruling by the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau underscores the increasingly testy exchange between the nation's two largest brewers, duelling for U.S. market share and fiercely pitting each other's light beers against the other.

In its ruling, the ATTTB - overseer of the brewing industry - found that Milwaukee-based Miller's slogan that Miller Lite has "more taste and half the carbs of Bud Light" is not disparaging or misleading. "After a thorough review of (Anheuser-Busch's) complaints and Miller's response, we find that Miller's advertising campaigns do not violate the regulations relating to comparative advertising," Stephen Taylor, assistant chief of the bureau's advertising, labeling and formulation division, said in a letter to Miller's Washington-based vice president of government affairs.

Miller spokesman Peter Marino cheered the ruling as confirmation "that the proposition that has made Miller Lite America's fastest-growing beer is rock solid." "We're going to continue to remind consumers they have a choice when selecting a beer, and we're going to assume that Anheuser-Busch is going to continue to complain about our marketing efforts," Marino said.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, brewer of top-selling Budweiser and Bud Light, said they would comment publicly about the matter later Wednesday.

Benj Steinman of Beer Marketer's Insights Inc. said last week that Anheuser-Busch last year lost two-tenths of a percentage point in U.S. market share - to 49.4 percent - while Miller, a unit of London-based SABMiller PLC, gained one-tenth of a point to 18.5 percent, aggressively exchanging blows with Anheuser-Busch in marketing along the way.

To Steinman, Miller's gain is significant in that its last market-share improvement was in 1999, largely because it acquired some brands from Pabst. "You've got a dogfight where everyone's fighting like hell for a piece of a pie that's not growing," Steinman said.

Anheuser-Busch last week warned for the second time since February that its profit outlook for the year would be lower on weaker-than-expected U.S. beer volume in the first quarter.

Last month, SABMiller suggested that Miller's beer sales were off slightly in this year's first two months.

In December, several television networks pulled three Miller ads after Anheuser-Busch complained that nine Miller ads that aired since the summer were unsubstantiated and misleading. One of the pulled ads was considered unduly "disparaging"; the other two spots were yanked because they insinuated an unsubstantiated claim that consumers preferred Miller over Bud. Some networks also reportedly rejected three proposed Anheuser-Busch spots spoofing Miller ones.

Shares of Anheuser-Busch fell 65 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $46.06 on the New York Stock Exchange, near the lower end of their 52-week range of $45.45 to $54.74.

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