Beer tie: prospects

I read with a little interest (because I so rarely set foot in a pub these days, and then often not to drink beer anyway) this article in The Publican about the forthcoming review of teh block exemption on vertical restraints.

It brings to mind a lecture at the Law Society, under the auspices, I suppose, of the Solicitors' European Group, many years ago, when regulations 1983/83 and 1984/83 were being drawn up to replace good old Regulation 67/67 - gosh, I do go back a long way.  A Commission official from Germany or somewhere was speaking.  He announced, a propos restrictions on where tenants could be obliged to get their beer from, that the Commission had decided that "bottled beer should be free".