Walmart Is In Trouble For Selling ‘Fake’ Craft Beer

Walmart, the mega retail chain has landed itself into trouble for allegedly selling fake craft beer. The matter was brought to light when a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company.

A Pack Of Trouble

The lawsuit has been filed with reference to the Trouble Brewing – label beers, which Walmart retails and claims is a craft beer.

The lawsuit has stated that Walmart has “through a fraudulent, unlawful, deceptive, and unfair course of conduct, [Walmart] manufactured, marketed, and/or sold its ‘Cat’s Away IPA,’ ‘After Party Pale Ale,’ ‘Round Midnight Belgian White,’ and ‘Red Flag Amber’ Craft Beers to the residents of Ohio and 44 other states with the false representation that the Craft Beer is in fact a ‘craft beer’ when, in actuality, nothing about [Walmart] is ‘small, traditional and independent’ to qualify it as an American craft brewer per the Brewer’s Association.”

The Brewer’s Association states that any beer labelled craft beer must have been brewed by companies that fit three criteria; the annual production has to be 6 million barrels of beer or less, less than 25% of the brewery can be owned by any alcohol industry member and that the beers it produces must have traditional or innovative flavours or brewing ingredients.

According to the suit, Trouble Brewery is owned by Genesee Brewing Company, which is owned by North American Breweries a subsidiary of Florida Ice and Farm. Because of this, it does not fit into the requirements of being a craft beer brewer.

Typically, craft beers are more expensive than regular beer and the lawsuit claims that by placing Trouble Brewing beers on the same shelves as craft beers, it was making customers pay more money for regular beer.

Should the lawsuit be upheld, anyone who has been duped into buying Trouble Brewery beer will be “entitled to [Walmart’s] wrongful gains, including interest, resulting from its unlawful, unjust and inequitable conduct” from mislabelling its beer.”