Lawsuit: Blue Moon Isn't Craft Beer
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Blue Moon Beer is facing a lawsuit from a California man claiming the company is misleading its customers by advertising that it's a craft beer.
At Hoppy Brewing Company in East Sacramento, every beer is a locally made craft beer that the owner, Troy Paski, takes pride in.
"My definition of craft beer is something that's brewed in small batches by people who get their hands dirty every day," he said.
A San Diego man has filed a lawsuit against Miller-Coors saying it is misleading its customers into thinking Blue Moon Beer is a craft beer. The lawsuit alleges Miller-Coors has gone to great lengths to disassociate Blue Moon Beer from the company name.
It claims the beer's advertising uses phrases like "artfully crafted" to trick customers into paying a higher price for Blue Moon than its other products.
According to the Brewers Association, a craft brewery must meet the following qualifications:
- It must produce less than 6 million barrels of beer annually
- Be less than 25 percent owned or controlled by a noncraft brewer
- And it can make beer using only traditional or innovative brewing ingredients.
But Paski says Blue Moon's advertising isn't illegal because there are no government guidelines.
"Blue Moon is not breaking the law by any sense of the imagination, what they are is essentially defrauding the consumer, but that's done every day," he said.
And he believes people who drink Blue Moon Beer are more likely to end up at his brewery.
"The more people that buy perceived craft beer and stop buying other beer helps craft beer grow even more," he said.
