Fireball and Parrot Bay lawsuit to proceed
A judge has approved a request for a class action lawsuit against Sazerac, alleging the firm misled customers with malt-based versions of Fireball and Parrot Bay.
Sharon Pizarro first made a complaint against the company in February 2023, using evidence built up by journalists over several years. This was followed by a complaint from Cindy Koonce in May 2023.
On 18 September, Judge Kenneth M Karas approved the plaintiffs’ request to move forward as a class action. Anyone in New York who bought Fireball Malt (since 2 April 2020) or Parrot Bay Malt (since 24 May 2020) is automatically part of the class, unless they opt out.
Details of the claims
The two lawsuits lean on evidence gathered by journalists that suggests Sazerac sold non-distilled products that were allegedly intended to look like spirits in petrol stations in Virginia, the Carolinas and New York. In these states, spirits can only be sold in state-licensed Alcohol Beverage Control stores.
Many of these products were manufactured by Brookstone Distillery Company, which the plaintiff alleges is a subsidiary of Sazerac.
In particular, Pizarro’s lawsuit focuses on bottles of Fireball in New York petrol stations. She discovered these products were not Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, which has an ABV of 33%, but rather Fireball Cinnamon, a malt-based beverage that sits at a much lower ABV of 16.5%.
Pizarro argued that the labels of the two products were almost identical, which led her to purchase Fireball Cinnamon from petrol stations near her home between 2021 and 2023.
She claims that she purchased the product because she believed it to be Fireball Whisky, and that had she known it was not whisky, she would not have purchased it.
In addition to the “bait-and-switch scheme”, the lawsuit alleges that Fireball Cinnamon’s labelling as ‘With Natural Whisky & Other Flavors’ is also misleading. The sentence implies the product contains natural whisky, whereas its true meaning is that it contains whisky flavours.
In her lawsuit, Koonce alleges that Sazerac misrepresented its Parrot Bay Malt Beverages. Parrot Bay’s ‘original’ variant is advertised as a Puerto Rican rum with natural coconut flavour, and has an ABV of 21%. However, the malt product sits at 16.5%.
The case reads: “When individuals buy Parrot Bay rum – as they do other rums – the alcohol content is a major component, if not the driving force, of the decision to purchase an alcoholic beverage.”
It adds that while the word ‘rum’ is omitted from the label of the Parrot Bay malt product, it is only in the smallest print, forcing buyers to “scrutinise further than the reasonable consumer is expected”.
The two lawsuits were consolidated in June 2023. Sazerac has submitted motions to dismiss the case on multiple occasions, however the judge has now allowed it to proceed.
The Spirits Business has reached out to Sazerac for comment.
This month, Sazerac released the first flavour variant for Fireball: Blazin’ Apple.
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