Heineken USA, Inc. reached a settlement with the California Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control (CABC) for, according to the CABC’s press release, a violation against Heineken for participating in an “illegal marketing scheme aimed at consumers.” The settlement was reached on February 10, 2017 and will require Heineken to pay a settlement fee in the amount of $30,000. The case stems from Heineken’s participation in a social media sampling campaign in late 2015.  Prior to the violation, the program received some press, including in Nightclub & Bar and Mobile Marketer.  As reported and further outlined in a Heineken press release, Heineken targeted consumers on Facebook and Twitter and consumers were instructed to download a coupon through Gratafy, the marketing platform app. The promotion offered consumers the opportunity to redeem their coupon in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. Once downloaded, the consumer could go to participating bars or restaurants and redeem the coupon for a free Heineken, Heineken Light or Dos Equis. According to the CABC’s press release, “the Trade Enforcement Unit conducted an inquiry into the proposed advertising campaign, determined it was an illegal marketing scheme, and advised Heineken it was unlawful prior to its implementation. Against ABC’s advisement, Heineken proceeded with launching the illegal marketing scheme. Despite ABC’s initial and a subsequent warnings about the unlawful activity, Heineken allowed the illegal marketing scheme to persist for several weeks.” Since the promotion directed consumers to specific retailers, Heineken was in violation of the California Alcohol Beverage Control Act. Heineken will face a 45…

America has fallen in love with craft beer and big retail took notice and wants to take a chunk of the ever expanding demand. Unfortunately, some consumers have been misled by America’s largest retailer: Walmart. Walmart has been selling beers that are not truly “craft” beers, but instead private-label beers produced at a large industrial brewery in Rochester, New York. According to the Washington Post, a class-action complaint filed in the Hamilton County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas on behalf of Matthew Adam “and all others similarly situated,” alleges that Walmart used a “fraudulent, unlawful, deceptive and unfair course of conduct” to market and sell its four Trouble Brewing beers as craft beers, and because of this, “members of the public were fraudulently induced to purchase Defendant’s Craft Beer at inflated prices.” The cans say the contents were brewed by Trouble Brewing in Rochester, New York, but no American brewery with the name Trouble Brewing actually exists, according to the complaint. They’re actually produced at Genesee Brewing, on a contract basis. The lawsuit states, “Defendant’s [Walmart] Craft Beer has never been a ‘craft beer’ nor has it been produced by a craft brewery, rather, it is a wholesale fiction created by the Defendant that was designed to deceive consumers into purchasing the Craft Beer at a higher, inflated price.”  Teresa Budd, a senior buyer for Walmart , told the Washington Post, “We were intentional about designing a package that conveyed a look and feel you’d expect of craft beer.”    …

Perhaps the newest trend in the cannabis craze is alcohol infused with hemp or cannabis. Given the regulatory hurdles and federal prohibition, so far infusions are a cottage industry with just a handful of manufacturers producing beer, wine and spirits infused with hemp or cannabis. Since any product containing the psychoactive properties of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a violation of federal law, most commercial producers are not getting into the industry….just yet. A few small producers, however, have created beverages infused with cannabis for sale solely within states that have legalized cannabis. The solution for some manufacturers who want to be able to create their beverages with the cannabis plant is through using ingredients that do not contain any THC. There are numerous studies that indicate that Cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp may provide a multitude of nutritional and health benefits even without the THC content, so it’s not necessarily all just marketing. For instance, Dad and Dudes Breweria of Aurora, Colorado, has received approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to sell its General Washington’s Secret Stash IPA brew, which contains cannabinoids but no THC, in all 50 states.         According to Men’s Journal, who spoke with Dad and Dude’s co-owner Dan Hembree, the TTB required a complete analysis of the ingredients, recipe, and process before it would give formula approval for the patent-pending process used for infusing the CBD and beer. Each keg of the beer contains 500 milligrams of CBD, about 4 milligrams per pint. The TTB already issued a Hemp…