Walmart Just Got Sued For Selling Fake Craft Beer
If you bought one of Walmart’s craft beers, you may have been ripped off.
The giant retailer is being sued for deceiving consumers by selling them a line of private-label “craft beers” that aren’t actually craft beer.
Walmart claims that their line of craft beers was developed in conjunction with a craft brewing company called Trouble Brewing, according to The Consumerist. However, the only Trouble Brewing company that was found was an Irish brewery that doesn’t match up to any of the information Walmart gave about the company producing their craft beers.
The company in Walmart’s paperwork for the alcohol is called WX Brands, and they develop all types of alcohol for brands around the world. They clearly don’t fit into the legal definition of craft beer, which requires production of less than 6 million barrels of beer per year and less than 25% of a non-craft brewer to own it.
However, Walmart puts up their craft beers, which include their Cat’s Away IPA, After Party Pale Ale, Round Midnight Belgian White, and Red Flag Amber beers, next to all of the other craft beers in the store — which further distorts the customer’s image that the beers are in fact actual craft beers.
Because the beers are available in Walmarts across 45 different states, there’s a good chance you saw it and thought it was a craft beer when it in fact wasn’t. If you bought the product, you were also getting deceived by Walmart, who was able to sell the beer for a higher price because it was a “craft beer” that is perceived to be worth more.
As a result, a class-action lawsuit has been brought against Walmart by a group of residents from Ohio, who are looking for compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction to prevent the labeling of the beers as craft beer.
The plaintiffs are calling the marketing of the beers “wholesale fiction,” and I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what Walmart is doing.
Hopefully, this makes Walmart stop defrauding the public with its “craft beers.”
