Yes that sounds like yet another reason to take regulatory action against predatory pubco's to me! If it wasn't this they'd no doubt find another way to swindle the pub landlords.
Indeed. Some protection for landlords would be desirable.
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Obviously all they care about is lining the pockets of directors and shareholders, and to hell if the actual pubs go under.
Would it make more sense if breweries owned the pubs? Their business, after all, is beer - so they have more to gain by keeping a pub open as a pub.
Well, you get good breweries and bad. Some of my favourite breweries have made some poor decisions around pub closures.