Once a North Carolina brewer sells about enough beer to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in any given year, state law says it must hand over distribution to another company. Attorneys for two growing craft breweries argued Tuesday that's unconstitutional. North Carolina's three-tier system of beer sales was created after Prohibition in the 1930s, in part to keep big breweries from limiting competition and consumer choice by locking up distribution. The law positions distributors to serve the growing craft beer market while overall sales have been flat for a generation. Craft beer had 12 percent of the U.S. beer market in 2016, according to the Brewers Association, a Colorado-based trade group.

Source: ABC News March 20, 2018 20:26 UTC