A US class action lawsuit alleging Diageo duped consumers by falsely labelling its Casamigos and Don Julio tequilas as “100% agave” has been dismissed.
The lawsuit, filed by a group of tequila buyers and restaurants last year, claimed the plantiffs would have purchased another brand of tequila, or paid less for Diageo products, had they known Diageo’s labels were false.
It sought substantial damages from Diageo by pursuing a claim of “personal injury”.
However, US District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said the plaintiffs had failed to show how they had been harmed, and that the evidence presented was not sufficient to “reasonably infer” Diageo was engaging in “ubiquitous, systemic mislabelling” of its products.
The court also rejected the sample size – of just five tequilas – as being too small to extrapolate to all Casamigos and Don Julio products.
“We are gratified that the court rejected plaintiffs’ adulteration allegations in their entirety,” a Diageo spokesperson said. “Casamigos and Don Julio are made from 100% blue weber agave. We’re proud of our tequilas, confident in their quality and integrity, and pleased to put these baseless claims behind us.”
By law, any product labelled 100% agave must be made only from blue weber agave and less than 1% additives (by volume) to enhance flavour, colour, and texture.
Any tequila which does not meet this standard would be classified as a mixto, which cannot be described as 100% agave.
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