Boston Beer Company’s hard seltzer woes are spilling over into the legal system. The maker of Truly Hard Seltzer, the second best-selling hard seltzer on the market, is now facing a proposed class action lawsuit for allegedly failing to disclose the deceleration in sales of Truly to investors.
The legal battle between Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Atlantic Beverage Distributors has crossed state lines into Rhode Island. Atlantic Importing and Distributing of Rhode Island, Inc., the Ocean State sister company of the Holliston, Massachusetts-based distributor, filed a lawsuit against Jack’s Abby in Rhode Island’s Providence/Bristol County Superior Court on July 23 to prevent the brewery from terminating Atlantic as its Rhode Island wholesaler. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based craft brewery had successfully ended its relationship with Atlantic’s Massachusetts operation in January.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has filed a pair of lawsuits this week, including one accusing the company’s Texas-based energy supplier of price gouging during Winter Storm Uri in February. Symmetry Energy Solutions, which supplies natural gas to A-B’s brewery and glass manufacturing plant in Houston, billed the world’s largest beer manufacturer $4.85 million for its energy use in February 2021, due to Texas’ spot energy market.
A false marketing suit against Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) and its Miami-based Veza Sur brand was dismissed by a U.S. district court judge in Miami last week, which included a district court judge referring to the definition of a craft brewery as “a subjective term,” according to Law360.
New Glarus Brewing co-founder and CEO Deborah Carey called a lawsuit filed last week against her and her Wisconsin craft brewery by three minority investors “slanderous,” and she said she plans to file a counter complaint. The three original investors in New Glarus claim in their lawsuit, filed in Wisconsin’s Dane County Circuit Court, that Carey breached her fiduciary duties and the company has oppressed minority shareholders.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating an agreement made in May between Uber and GoPuff that allows consumers to order items from the e-commerce delivery retailer via the UberEats delivery app, according to The Information.
Two Floridians are seeking class certification of a lawsuit filed last year against Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Veza Sur Brewing that alleges that the world’s largest beer manufacturer is deceiving customers by positioning the Miami-based offshoot as a craft brewery.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont this week announced the reduction of taxes on beer by 16.7%, effective July 1, 2023.
Consulting firm BW166 reported that label approvals for seltzer and seltzer-like products are accelerating, with approvals trending at 334 per month compared to the 228 per month in 2020. More than half (53%) of on-premise visitors went to a bar or restaurant during the July 4 weekend, according to CGA, an on-premise market research firm.
Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito officially passed the torch Thursday to Michel Doukeris after 15 years with the world’s largest beer manufacturer.
Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and sister brand Springdale Beer Company have signed with Sheehan Family Companies to distribute its offerings statewide in Massachusetts, the company announced today. Sheehan subsidiaries Craft Massachusetts (Boston, central and western Massachusetts), L. Knife & Son (southeastern Massachusetts), and Seaboard Products (northeastern Massachusetts) will begin distributing Jack’s Abby products starting today.
Sierra Nevada has filed a counter lawsuit against Matagrano, Inc., the Chico-headquartered craft brewery’s former South San Francisco-based wholesaler, in the Superior Court of the state of California, County of San Mateo. The trademark lawsuit between Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Grupo Modelo over the former’s ability to produce and sell Corona Hard Seltzer will continue, despite Constellation’s motion to dismiss, a federal judge ruled this week.
Two former employees of Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Massachusetts, are exploring their legal options after alleged sexual harassment and racially charged comments by fellow staff members, according to The Boston Globe.
Black is Beautiful, a collaborative initiative started by Weathered Souls Brewing to fight police brutality and other injustices against people of color, has raised $2.2 million, according to a Facebook post by the San Antonio-basec craft brewery.
