Marston's - Award - January 2019 - 3
Pubs Code Adjudicator · Pubs Code (PCA) · England and Wales · January 2019
Why it matters
A Pubs Code arbitration (Marston's, January 2019) on the Market Rent Only (MRO) option, the tied tenant's right to switch to a free-of-tie rent and buy beer on the open market, which is the single most important right the Pubs Code created.
Summary
A Pubs Code arbitration involving Marston's, one of the large pub companies bound by the Code, and one of its tied tenants. The dispute touched several duties at once: the Market Rent Only (MRO) option, the tied tenant's right to switch to a free-of-tie rent and buy beer on the open market, which is the single most important right the Pubs Code created; and whether the terms the pub company offered were unreasonable, the question of whether an MRO offer was genuine or designed to deter the tenant. For a student, it is a concrete worked example of how the Pubs Code is enforced against a named operator: the Code gives tied tenants in England and Wales a set of statutory protections against the brewery or pub company that owns their pub, and the Adjudicator resolves disputes about them by binding arbitration. The Adjudicator publishes the award (redacted where needed) so the industry can see how the Code is applied.
The detail
Parties: Marston's (pub-owning business) and a tied tenant
Outcome: See the published award for the Adjudicator's findings.
Applicable law: Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016; Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015
Issues in play: Pubs Code
Read the full decision at Pubs Code Adjudicator ↗
Locus Standi links to the source decision and publishes its own plain-language summary. It does not reproduce the text of the award.