Consumer vs Blue Moon class action lawsuit

@Johndubie - very good and practical point, but a legal strawman. The court won't define "consumer" in such a narrow way.

 

So craft has an actual legal definition? Come on now.

Enjoy

 

for fuck's sake. I lose hope in humanity more and more each day that passes.

 

The margin on blue moon is substantially higher than Coors/Coors light. I just googled Bevmo pricing and Blue Moon is $17.49 vs. $10.49. Yes, the COGS most likely are higher but it would probably equate to $.50 at most/case and the taxes are virtually flat. Strip out the retailer (~30%) and distributor (~20%) pieces of the $7 (higher shelf price) and you have anywhere between a 5-12pt margin difference. As far as BC and OI is concerned I don't know if marketing costs are higher on Blue Moon and whether the Blue Moon business unit commands higher operating expenses (salary, etc..) Doubtful.

 

If you paid a premium for a beer because it, rightly or wrongly, claimed to be craft and not because the taste made it worth the price... *shakes head*

 

Idiots who don't know anything about craft buy Blue Moon because it's advertised in a similar fashion to craft beer. That's what I got from this. Consumers should educate themselves.

 

Blue Moon was originally brewed by F. X. Matt for Coors then-specialty division, Unibev (which may have used a Denver address) - so the early labels probably said "Utica, NY" and, possibly, "Denver, CO" as well. As noted below, there was no secret who owned the brand at the time of release (though, granted, not a lot of beer drinkers check the Business Section of the Times before purchase).

Blue Moon would be later brewed by Boston Beer Co. in their Cincinnati brewery (probably a continuation of a contract with the former owner, Hudepohl-Schoenling) and at Coors' Memphis brewery (built by Schlitz, sold to Coors by Stroh and now the home of City Brewing Co., which brews a number of contract craft beers, notably Sixpoint's cans). So, it has shared brewing facilities and been done in the same "batch size" as numerous well-known and accepted as "craft" beers.

After the MolsonCoors merger and the sale of the Memphis brewery, Blue Moon was even being brewed for the US market in Canada at Molson facilities and, somewhat amazingly given typical industry marketing, Coors didn't push the "Imported" aspect on labels, etc., IIRC. After the creation of the MillerCoor US joint venture, Blue Moon was moved back to the merged company's US breweries which can probably be determined by checking the bottle codes used by MC. Some BM production comes from former Miller plants IIRC - probably Eden, NC (again, a brewery that once contract-brewed "craft" brands like Samuel Adams and Pete's Wicked).

For many years, of course, there was no physical "Blue Moon Brewery" - but that changed when Coors changed the name of their Denver baseball stadium Sandlot brewery byadding "Blue Moon" to the official title - obviously, only a tiny percentage of the brand's total barrelage comes out of that facility. And they recently announced building a much larger separate brewery in Denver for the Blue Moon subsidiary, but, again, given the brand is over 2m bbl/yr, most Blue Moon will still come out of MC multimillion barrel production breweries.

For those who note that "drinkers should educate themselves" - it seems some did, easily discovered the ownership of the Blue Moon brand (as simple as checking the MillerCoors website) - and then called a lawyer

 

As my grandma used to say, "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing."

 

One of the best points made in this thread.

 

Agreed, everyone is looking for a payday.....disgusting.

 

It is $8 for 6 and $13 for 12 in my neck of the woods. I don't know if I consider that a "premium" price, but I still pass right buy it.

 

Good question / query. I'm certain that your query would certainly make a great thread on it's own. I'd be willing to bet that you'd have several different opinions on what defines "craft", from vague and all inclusive definitions all the way to extremely finite definitions that would exclude most major "craft" brewers, and plenty of hair splitting along the way.

Even though I'm not certain I could come up with a great definition of craft at this very moment, I'll "advocate for the Devil" momentarily with what I pulled from the Brewers Association website under "The following are some concepts related to craft brewing and brewers"

-•Craft beer is generally made with traditional ingredients like malted barley; interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients are often added for distinctiveness.

Based solely on this bullet of definition from the BA, Blue Moon indeed has an argument to suggest it is a craft brewer. Note that the BA does not claim to issue a legal judgment so to speak of what a craft brewer is, but rather a "strong suggestion" that craft brewers follow all of the distinctive traits described in the bulleted section I pulled this from (someone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on the Brewers Association being a legal clearinghouse for craft - I could indeed be off on that).

So if you were to ask Blue Moon what their definition of craft beer is, they'd probably look no further than the Brewers Association website to make their argument.

 

"...and cause substantial injury to consumers".
This made my day. This whole thing makes me want to drink a beer at 9:30 am and i'm stuck at work.

 

Food labelling is out of control IMO. Companies create deceiving wording (ie. low fat - still loaded with sugar). Craft brewers break their backs doing 12+ hour shifts, take on 5 jobs at once and make little money in the process. Some even have to keep another job while starting a brewery. Large corporations put craft or artisanal on the label of a lame beer which takes credit for all the innovation craft brewers have done. Fuck em

 

In a later post, I quoted an article referenced earlier in the thread (http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/malt-beverage/a-flood-of-lawsuits-and-too-much-blue-moon-beer):

"Coor's . . . makes more than 2.4 billion gallons of beer a year — about 12 times what the prevailing Brewers Association definition, for a craft brewer, allows" I just started a new thread asking the question.

 

Thanks, I never buy the stuff which is why I didn't "get it".

 

Still a pretty dumb use of a courts time. There is a lot more injustice in the world than someone being duped into thinking blue moon is a craft beer. Live and Learn, what are the damages? 8.99 for a six pack lol.

 

to be fair, you say finding out about blue moon is as easy as checking the miller coors website, but if you google blue moon it takes you to this: http://www.bluemoonbrewingcompany.com/

You'd have to already know that it was brewed by miller coors to check their website

 

What happened to the time when you bought a product and simply judged if the price was worth the quality?

All this "I'm suing because I purchased something I didn't like and it's not my fault because nothing can ever be my fault" bull shit really needs to stop. It's pathetic and petty lawsuits like this make the beer community, which I tend to enjoy being a part of, a less fun and worse looking place to be.

 

I have drank a few Blue Moons. How do I opt out of the class claiming damages?