Yesterday the Wall Street Journal announced that MillerCoors, the joint venture between both SABMiller and Molson Coors in the United States, was being sued by two Ohio distributors that are upset over the termination of their established partnerships. AFP Distributors Inc. and Beverage Distributors Inc., out of Cleveland and Gloucester respectively, filed suit in a federal court located in Columbus against MillerCoors after being told their agreements would end on September 25th.

From the looks of it, MillerCoors is attempting to position themselves into an even more competitive stature by streamlining their distribution network in order to better compete with the steadily growing InBev empire. This could be a pre-emptive move, as changes could come to Anheuser-Busch/InBev’s distribution throughout the country in the coming months.

Such a risky maneuver could have the joint venture raking in the dough or leaking loot from lawsuits. Also worth watching will be the after-effects the InBev buyout will have on the American beer market in the near future, as I doubt we’ve seen the last of this sort of consolidation and struggle for domestic dominance in the US.