Fired up: Fireball faces lawsuit over lack of spirit
A legal fight is spicing up stateside over allegations that a well-known liquor brand misled customers into purchasing a product that didn’t actually contain any of its famous whisky.
Sazerac Company, the makers of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey, have been named in the class-action lawsuit over the contents of another one of its products: Fireball Cinnamon.
The January 7 filing says the bottles are being sold in the US for a “premium price” of about 99 cents in supermarkets and convenience stores. According to the company’s website, the products aren’t sold in Canada.
The plaintiff, Anna Marquez, claims that “the bottles appear identical but for the word “Whisky” on the front label, which most purchasers seeking alcohol will not even detect.”
The document details that Marquez bought the beverage expecting it contains a distilled spirit and not a malt spirit and “paid more for the Product than she would have had she known the representations and omissions were false and misleading, or would not have purchased it.”
United State District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division
Fireball’s website states it created the flavour because consumers wanted Fireball Whisky in more shopping locations, including places that only sell beer, malt, and wine products.
“In order to meet this demand, we developed a great tasting malt beverage and an excellent wine-based product under the Fireball Cinnamon brand name. Both are made using our proprietary recipe, capturing the essence of the Fireball Whisky taste experience consumers love,” it reads on fireballwhiskey.com.
The plaintiff is seeking more than $5 million in damages.
“The members of the class Plaintiff seeks to represent are more than 100, because the
Product has been sold with the representations described here from thousands of stores including grocery stores, big box stores, gas stations and convenience stores, in the States Plaintiff seeks to represent,” the document reads.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
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