The Global Wineglass: An Economic and Antitrust Perspective on the International Wine Market

On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at promoting competition in the adult beverage industry. As mandated by the executive order, the Department of the Treasury—with the assistance of the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)—released a report detailing anticompetitive practices in the American markets for beer, wine, and spirits. The report concluded that several winemaking practice regulations inflicted an unjustified regulatory burden on producers. Therefore, the Treasury ordered the TTB to evaluate its regulations and eliminate any obstacles to competition. This Note first discusses the regulatory frameworks of prominent wine regions across the world, then examines the underlying policy of wine legislation. This Note argues that the TTB should modernize wine regulations and adopt more stringent standards in further rulemaking to comply with federal antitrust law in the United States.