Blue Moon Lawsuit Says MillerCoors Deceives Craft Beer Drinkers

A Blue Moon lawsuit claims that the beer company MillerCoors is deceiving craft beer drinkers by the way they are marketing their Blue Moon brand name. The Blue Moon suit was created as a class action lawsuit by Evan Parent, who claims MillerCoors falsely portrays Blue Moon beer as a hand-crafted, independently-owned product.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, bottles of 170-year-old beer and champagne were preserved underwater in a sunken ship discovered off the coast of Finland, and scientists were able to recreate the flavors of the old beer to see what they tasted like. Going even further back in time, an ancient Egyptian brewery found in Tel Aviv, Israel gave us a hunt at what Egypt’s beer would have been like way back in the day.

In order to make the Blue Moon lawsuit seem viable, it is pointed out that MillerCoors produces 76 million barrels of beer a year, which is 12 times the limit to qualify as a craft brewer according to The Brewer’s Association.

“Blue Moon Brewing Company is a small, limited capacity brewery located inside Coors Field, home to the Colorado Rockies baseball team. The Blue Moon beer that is sold in stores is not brewed at or by the Blue Moon Brewing Company. Rather, it is brewed by MillerCoors at the company’s Golden, Colorado and Eden, North Carolina breweries. In addition to brewing Blue Moon, these breweries produce all of Defendant’s other beers, including Coors, Milwaukee’s Best, Miller High Life, Hamm’s, Icehouse and Olde English.”

Evan Parent filed the Blue Moon lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court, and he explained in an interview with NBC why people should be outraged.

“It matters to me because I’m a craft brew fan…I take care in where I spend my money,” Parent said. “When someone’s deceiving me into giving them my money for the wrong reasons that’s upsetting.”

The Blue Moon lawsuit claims that by deceiving beer drinkers, MillerCoors is able to charge up to 50 percent more for the same product. Parent believes MillerCoors goes out of their to disassociate the supposed craft beer from the large company in order to make beer drinkers more likely to purchase. It is noted that the MillerCoors brand name does not appear anywhere on a Blue Moon bottle.

“What this case is really about is people think they’re buying craft beer and they’re actually buying crafty marketing,” Parent’s lawyer Jim Treglio explained.

Other lawyers believe it is possible the Blue Moon suit was filed simply in hopes of getting a big check as a settlement.

“I think it’s great the MillerCoors connection is all over the web and Wall Street and business magazines, but it need not be on every label and ad,” says lawyer Robert Lehrman of Lehrman Beverage Law, according to Men’s Journal. “But it’s no secret here. Anyone who cares knew a long time ago. It is preposterous that the plaintiff is a craft beer aficionado and didn’t know. I suspect Parent is getting his same rent-a-plaintiff fee whether the lawyers win or lose.”

A spokesperson for MillerCoors says the Blue Moon lawsuit lacks any merit. What do you think?