WATCHDOG BUNGLES SPIRITS SUSPENSION
Rogan Macdonald / Bloomberg

The Moscow Times, Russia
Aug. 10, 2006

The Federal Consumer Protection Service mistakenly announced that
Pernod Ricard’s license had been suspended.

The Federal Consumer Protection Service’s Moscow branch had egg on
its face after it mistakenly announced that Pernod Ricard, the world’s
No. 2 wine and spirits company, had had its license suspended.

A statement saying that Pernod Ricard’s Russian subsidiary, P.R. Rus,
had its wholesale alcohol sales license suspended was posted on the
service’s web site Tuesday. It listed eight other alcohol market
players, saying that their licenses were also suspended by the
Federal Tax Service’s Moscow branch at the request of the consumer
protection service.

"It was a mistake," a spokesman for the watchdog said. "It happens."

Dated, incorrect information was given to the press service for
publication, he said, adding that everyone was under a lot of pressure
and that the department’s chief was on vacation.

The statement caused a stir — including front-page stories in the
country’s two largest business newspapers, Vedomosti and Kommersant —
before it disappeared from the service’s web site Wednesday.

The phones at the Moscow office of P.R. Rus were ringing off the
hook after the statement was released, said Olga Kasatkina, the
company’s spokeswoman, adding that P.R. Rus didn’t have any problems
with licenses.

"We are working as usual," she said.

P.R. Rus distributes Jameson’s whiskey, Armenian cognacs produced by
Yerevan Cognac Enterprise and Pernod Ricard brands including Havana
Club rum.

Retailers and importers have been struggling for weeks with delays in
the introduction of new customs labels for imported wine and spirits
that have left store shelves empty of many popular liquor brands.