Initially the pubco involved — Enterprise Inns — was revealed to us. But then there were some worries raised about whether it was either helpful or fair for the identity of the participants to be made public, and whether a policy of disclosure might discourage the use of the service. So we were asked to anonymise the story — and rightly or wrongly we did so.
It was not a popular decision with some PMA readers. One licensee posted on our website forum: “I’m afraid that a complete wall of silence as to the offence, the offender, and the penalties serves nobody’s interest and fundamentally undermines any confidence there might have been in this.”
If it was a controversial decision by PICA-Service to insist upon confidentiality, and for the PMA to agree, it was, we understood, only a short-term concession while various stakeholders were consulted, to ensure all parties understood and accepted the timing and format of the publicity that would arise from PICA-Service hearings.
It has now been determined what information will be released after each hearing: the identity of both parties (pub and pubco), the nature of any breaches and a confirmation of any award of damages and/or invitation to claim costs (though not the amount of the award or costs).
This remains a compromise. There is certainly at least one pubco that is vehemently against the idea of any release of any information from PICA-Service hearings. There are also many licensees who would wish for all the gory details of every case to be aired, especially if they served to strengthen their unwavering belief that all pub companies are evil, money-grabbing tyrants.
But it would be wrong to let the question of privacy overshadow the more important question — does PICA-Service work? We don’t yet have much evidence, but today we publish the testimony of the second licensee to go through a hearing, and he doesn’t have any regrets. In fact he’s positively enthusiastic about the whole process. But he won his case, and it’s easy for the victor to be magnanimous.
So what can we expect of PICA-Service in the coming months? Will there now be a glut of hearings and findings against pubcos as licensees take courage from the victories of their pioneering peers? What will happen if and when the first licensee gets caught out trying to play the system and suffers defeat in a PICA-Service hearing?
Before anyone gets too excited, we will need to wait until we can discern a meaningful pattern in the cases brought to PICA-Service and the findings it pronounces.
If the same pubcos are repeatedly found in breach of various aspects of their codes of conduct, and of not acting within the spirit of the codes, they will have to raise their game or face a regular diet of embarrassing headlines and an expensive litany of damages.
That, after all, is how self-regulation is supposed to work.