{"id":29081,"date":"2015-10-21T08:04:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T15:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/beer-money-20m-settlement-in-lawsuit-over-becks-packaging\/"},"modified":"2015-10-21T08:04:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T15:04:36","slug":"beer-money-20m-settlement-in-lawsuit-over-becks-packaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/beer-money-20m-settlement-in-lawsuit-over-becks-packaging\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer money: $20M settlement in lawsuit over Beck’s packaging"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI<\/strong> \u2014 U.S. drinkers of Beck\u2019s beer who thought the American-made brew they were buying was still a fancy, century-old German import can get cash payments under a $20 million settlement approved Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit over deceptive packaging.<\/p>\n

On tap: People with proof they bought Beck\u2019s at retail outlets could get up to $50 per household. Those without receipts can qualify for $12 maximum. Claims may be filed through Nov. 20 via a court-approved website: www.becksbeersettlement.com .<\/p>\n

The settlement, approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge John J. O\u2019Sullivan, came in a lawsuit filed in 2013 by several Beck\u2019s drinkers who noticed there was almost no visible \u201cmade in the U.S.A.\u201d language on the beer\u2019s packaging even though it has been brewed in St. Louis, Missouri, since 2012.<\/p>\n

Instead, in big letters, the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand emphasized its \u201cGerman Quality,\u201d noted that it was made under the \u201cGerman Purity Law of 1516\u201d and originated in Bremen, Germany.<\/p>\n

All may be true, said plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Tucker Ronzetti, but the point of the lawsuit is that a beer made in St. Louis shouldn\u2019t be passed off as the import it once was \u2014 with premium pricing to boot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey realized they had been deceived,\u201d Ronzetti said of the plaintiffs. \u201cThe packaging didn\u2019t really explain that it was a domestic beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was some U.S.-made language on the packaging and bottles, but it was difficult to find. For example, a Beck\u2019s drinker had to turn a 12-pack upside down to find the country of origin on the box\u2019s bottom. Still, U.S. regulators approved the designs.<\/p>\n

The original Beck\u2019s brewery, founded in 1873, remained in the same family until 2002, when it was purchased by the Belgian conglomerate now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. Court documents show that Anheuser-Busch decided for cost reasons to shift brewing for Beck\u2019s U.S. market in 2012 to St. Louis, where the company makes Budweiser and other beers.<\/p>\n

Yet the Beck\u2019s packaging still emphasized Germany, something Ronzetti\u2019s lawsuit claimed was misleading and false advertising. One Miami plaintiff, Francisco Rene Marty, said in court papers he bought a six-pack or 12-pack of Beck\u2019s every week partly because it was supposedly brewed in Germany using local ingredients that gave it a distinctive taste.<\/p>\n

Marty said he \u201cwould not have purchased Beck\u2019s had he known (Anheuser-Busch\u2019s) representations were false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anheuser-Busch initially tried to get the lawsuit thrown out but finally agreed to the settlement earlier this year and changed its packaging to more prominently show that Beck\u2019s is made in the U.S. Under the settlement, the company does not admit any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reached a compromise in the Beck\u2019s labeling case,\u201d said Jorn Socquet, Anheuser-Busch vice president for marketing. \u201cWe believe our labeling, packaging and marketing of Beck\u2019s has always been truthful, transparent and in compliance with all legal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

An estimated 1.7 million U.S. households could qualify for settlement payments. According to court documents, in 2012 the company sold more than 2.6 million cases of Beck\u2019s in the U.S. at an average price of about $27 each.<\/p>\n

Ronzetti, who negotiated a similar settlement last year involving Japan-originated Kirin beer also owned by Anheuser-Busch, and his legal team will receive a flat $3.5 million in fees and expenses \u2014 about 11 percent of the potential payout to consumers.<\/p>\n

The settlement applies only to Beck\u2019s beer sold at retail outlets, not at bars or restaurants.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/Miamicurt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 U.S. drinkers of Beck\u2019s beer who thought the American-made brew they were buying was still a fancy, century-old German import can get cash payments under a $20 million settlement approved Tuesday in a class-action lawsuit over deceptive packaging. On tap: People with proof they bought Beck\u2019s at retail outlets could get up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29081"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}