Diageo moves to dismiss Tequila class action
Don Julio owner Diageo has filed a motion to dismiss an “implausible” class action lawsuit that claim its Tequilas are falsely marketed as ‘100% agave’.
On 5 May, a class action lawsuit was filed against Diageo North America alleging that its Don Julio and Casamigos brands contain non-agave alcohol.
Consumers Avi Pusateri and Chaim Mishulovin, and restaurant Sushi Tokyo, filed the class action lawsuit against Diageo North America with the US District Court of the Eastern District of New York.
It was followed by similar lawsuits filed in San Francisco, California and the second in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The latter was filed by Nabil Haschemie on 15 May and was described by Diageo as a “copycat” of the New York filing, which was submitted 10 days earlier.
In July, Diageo filed its initial response to the legal action, denying the allegations.
In August, eight new plaintiffs from eight different states (Hawaii, Louisiana, Illinois, California, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, and Pennsylvania) joined Haschemie’s class action suit.
The plaintiffs are Haschemie, Francisco Javier Barberi, Alex Katz, Jeffrey Schneider, Bryan Armbruster, Samuel Gemus, Justin Frank Harkness, Leo Suarez and Jonathan Mcdonald.
The London-headquartered drinks giant has now filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuits in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Diageo said in a statement: “We have moved to dismiss this complaint as the allegations are implausible, lacking legal and logical merit. The plaintiffs hinge their allegations on a scientifically unvalidated test; this is simply copycat conjecture based on other sham complaints.
“As previously stated, we are confident in our defence as all bottled Casamigos and Don Julio Tequilas labelled as ‘100% agave’ are just that – proudly made from 100% Blue Weber agave.”
In its latest legal filing, Diageo claims that the lawsuit filed in Florida was nearly identical to the one that was submitted in New York. According to Diageo, Haschemie acknowledged that his lawsuit was a “me too” filing and that he allegedly only sued after becoming aware of the New York lawsuit. This prompted him to conduct undisclosed testing.
Diageo alleges that the class action lawsuit is based on “incomplete and vaguely described results from a single European company’s ‘test’”.
This test, which Diageo described as unvalidated, used one sample from Casamigos and one sample from Don Julio.
Theory equal to ‘earth is flat’ claim
The company noted that their claims are “implausible” adding that this test “somehow proves, according to them, that every bottle of Tequila Diageo has sold for decades was not, as the label states, ‘100% agave’.”
Diageo said: “Their [testing] theory is the equivalent of someone claiming the earth is flat because he saw a ‘test’ result somewhere that says his neighbour’s backyard is level.”
The company also pointed out that the plaintiffs had not purported “any flaw or vulnerability in Diageo’s meticulous and rigorously monitored Tequila-making process, any failure of internal controls, any disclosure, investigation, or judicial finding, nor any whistle-blower” to support their claim.
Furthermore, Diageo went on to claim that its Tequilas are made with “one of the most careful, comprehensive, rigorous and highly regulation production processes of any spirit in the world”.
Diageo argued that the so-called results from the ‘test’ are “so threadbare, relying on a single testing method scientifically unproven for Tequila, purportedly performed on two samples for which they report incomplete results (disclosing only one of three numbers needed to even begin to understand their results), that it is impossible to determine what they did, with whom, when, where and how”.
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the regulatory body for Tequila, oversees the Tequila NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana), a four-digit number that is required to be classified as an official Tequila brand.
Diageo claims its ‘100% agave’ labelling complies with Mexico’s NOM and US laws, which includes label approval from the government’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
The company noted that it must obtain annual certification from the CRT to authorise Diageo to produce 100% agave Tequila. Each batch of Tequila for export must also receive a certificate of authenticity from the CRT.
By retail sales value, Diageo is the largest producer of Tequila in the world, the motion to dismiss filing noted.
‘Massive deception’
Regarding the initial complaint in New York, Diageo said it “did not include any purported test results or other allegations to support its meritless claims – only citations to a few blog posts that do not mention Diageo and a single conclusory allegation that unidentified testing ‘confirmed’ that Don Julio and Casamigos Tequilas ‘did not meet the regulatory requirements’ for 100% agave”.
Diageo said the plaintiffs backed their claims by pointing to several blog posts – including one from Mezcalistas – that included “speculative, unsubstantiated statements” from agave farmer protesters that allege Tequila producers are ‘mixing cane alcohol into Tequila’ that is then sold as 100% agave”. These posts did not mention Diageo, Don Julio or Casamigos.
Diageo argues that the plaintiffs had attempted to create a “story of massive deception spanning two brands, numerous product lines, multiple facilities, and hundreds of people, including independent regulators – without a single supporting factual allegation”.
Transparency in the Tequila industry and the use of additives have been a contentious issue in the sector.
In April, Bacardi said it was in “constructive conversations” with the CRT to address the topic of additives transparently following a temporary ban on Patrón exports.
A month earlier, the CRT took legal action against the Additive Free Alliance, which had previously published a list of Tequila brands it deemed to be ‘additive-free’.
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