€60m whiskey contract row admitted to Commercial Court

A commercial dispute over €60 million worth of Irish whiskey has reached the Commercial Court in Dublin. The plaintiffs are seeking access to stock they claim full ownership of, while the distillery maintains it is entitled to withhold delivery. According to filings available through the Courts Service of Ireland (courts.ie), O’Malley Ireland Spirits Trading Ltd and its affiliated distributor Nonto DAC are seeking to establish title to a significant volume of whiskey stock purchased over five years from Great Northern Distillery (GND), the whiskey venture founded by John Teeling. The plaintiffs assert that they have acquired some €60 million worth of whiskey since the relationship began, and that they have paid in full for stock corresponding to the first three quarters of 2024. They claim GND is refusing to release the whiskey unless a separate €6.4 million charge for warehousing and transport costs for Q4 2024 is paid. The distillery’s bonded warehouses, regulated by Customs and Revenue, are the locus of the row. As standard practice, Irish whiskey is often stored under bond with excise duty suspended until it exits the chain. O’Malley and Nonto contend that payment for the whiskey has already transferred title to them and that GND is now improperly asserting a lien over the goods.

Access to stock

They are seeking a court declaration confirming their ownership of the stock and rejecting any right by GND to exercise the lien. In addition, they are asking the court to compel GND to grant them immediate access to the warehouses so that they can take possession of the whiskey in question. The matter was formally admitted to the fast-track Commercial Court list on May 12 following an application by Bernard Dunleavy SC on behalf of the plaintiffs, with Michael Howard SC consenting for the defence. The hearing took place before Mr Justice Mark Sanfey, who confirmed that the application for an interlocutory injunction would be heard next month. In court, GND indicated that it “disputes the claims”. The distillery has not made any further public comment, and no press release has been issued by any party to date. According to the Independent.ie, the distillery’s legal team has made clear its intention to resist the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the contractual and warehousing arrangements.

No public comment

The plaintiffs have not released a formal statement either, but are relying on affidavit evidence already filed, which, according to courts.ie, argues that the lien is neither contractually nor legally sustainable where title has passed and no further payments are due on the batches in question. All proceedings are being managed under the Commercial List of the High Court, with pleadings and affidavits forming part of the public record and available via the Central Office of the High Court. The anticipated injunction hearing is expected to play a decisive role in clarifying whether the plaintiffs will be granted immediate access to the whiskey they say they own outright. Should the court side with GND, the plaintiffs may be forced to renegotiate the lien or settle the disputed fourth quarter charges. If the plaintiffs succeed, it would likely set a strong precedent on bonded warehousing rights and title transfer for high-volume whiskey trades in Ireland’s maturing spirits sector.