No, Modelo and Bud Light are not owned by the same company in the U.S.

Some people have vowed to boycott Bud Light in recent months over the beer brand’s partnership with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who is transgender and has publicly documented her experience transitioning online.

Both Mulvaney and Bud Light have faced intense anti-trans backlash online since the partnership was announced in April. The controversy has also led to multiple false claims, including that Anheuser-Busch’s CEO resigned and the entire marketing team was fired.

Now, after more than two decades as America’s best-selling beer, Bud Light has fallen to second place. Modelo Especial overtook Bud Light in U.S. retail dollar sales in the month ending June 3, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting.

While some people claim these sales results are proof that the boycott is working, others say they are not because Modelo and Bud Light are owned by the same company. 

THE QUESTION

Are Modelo and Bud Light owned by the same company in the U.S.?

THE SOURCES

• U.S. Department of Justice
• Anheuser-Busch InBev
• Constellation Brands

THE ANSWER

No, Modelo and Bud Light are not owned by the same company in the U.S.

WHAT WE FOUND

Modelo and Bud Light are owned by different companies in the U.S. as the result of a settlement agreement to a federal antitrust lawsuit. 

In 2012, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev announced a deal to acquire the remainder of Grupo Modelo, which owns the Modelo beer brand, that it did not already own. AB InBev previously owned more than a 50% stake in Grupo Modelo before the deal was announced. 

If the deal went through as planned, AB InBev would have had full ownership and control of Modelo. 

But the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit in January 2013, before the sale was completed. The lawsuit alleged that the nearly $20 billion purchase would “substantially lessen competition” in the U.S. beer market.

In April 2013, the Department of Justice reached a settlement with AB InBev and Grupo Modelo. The settlement agreement allowed the sale to go through if AB InBev sold Modelo’s entire U.S. business to the company Constellation Brands. 

“Before the merger, there were two competitors – Modelo and ABI – and ABI owned a substantial stake in Modelo,” Bill Baer, former assistant attorney general for DOJ Antitrust Division, said in a press release announcing the settlement. “The companies’ proposed merger would have reduced those two competitors to one – ABI.”

Constellation Brands announced in June 2013 that it had completed its acquisition of Grupo Modelo’s U.S. beer business from AB InBev for about $4.8 billion. This means beer brands that were owned by Grupo Modelo, including Modelo, Corona and Pacifico, are now sold by Constellation Brands in the U.S.

AB InBev still owns the Modelo brand elsewhere in the world, but not in the United States. That means sales of Modelo in the U.S. go to Constellation Brands, not AB InBev.