Last week, a federal court dismissed a putative class-action lawsuit against Diageo, holding that Red Stripe’s labeling and packaging does not, as a matter of law, mislead reasonable consumers into thinking that Red Stripe is made in Jamaica with Jamaican ingredients.
The suit, Dumas et al. v. Diageo PLC et al., began in July 2015, when class-action Plaintiffs alleged that Diageo deceived consumers into believing that Red Stripe is manufactured in Jamaica. Plaintiffs argued that Diageo’s use of the phrases “Jamaican Style Lager” and “The Taste of Jamaica,” incorporation of the Desnoes & Geddes logo, and allusions to the “spirit, rhythm, and pulse of Jamaica,” misled consumers to believe that Red Stripe was a Jamaican Beer.
Chief Judge Barry T. Moskowitz of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California issued the opinion, disagreeing with Plaintiffs, and holding that “no reasonable consumer would be misled into thinking that Red Stripe is made in Jamaica with Jamaican ingredients based on the wording of the packaging and labeling.”
Key to Judge Moskowitz’s decision was the fact that Red Stripe says “Jamaican Style Lager” and “Brewed & Bottled by Red Stripe Beer Company, Latrobe, PA.” Judge Moskowitz concluded that the word “Jamaican” modifies the word “Style” (not “Lager”), and indicates that the product is not from Jamaica. Additionally, Judge Moskowitz concluded that the brewed and bottled by language indicating “Latrobe, PA,” was legible. Judge Moskowitz also concluded that the phrase “The Taste of Jamaica” and the allusions to the “spirit, rhythm, and pulse of Jamaica” were vague and meaningless (i.e., mere puffery), and could not reasonably be relied upon as designations of source.
Regarding the Desnoes & Geddes logo, Judge Moskowitz stated that the “logo itself does not impart information regarding the source of the product.” Judge Moskowitz added, in a footnote, that “the Court doubts that the average consumer would know that the D&G logo is associated with Desnoes & Geddes Limited, the Jamaican brewery, as opposed to, say, Diageo-Guinness.”
Overall, Judge Moskowitz appears to have reached the correct decision. I am, however, skeptical of some of his conclusions. First, regarding the Desnoes & Geddes’s logo, I tend to disagree that the logo “does not impart information regarding the source of the product.” Imparting information regarding the source of a product is the key function of a trademark. Accordingly, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a consumer to believe that a beer bearing Desnoes & Geddes’s logo (a registered trademark) originates from Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica.
Second, regarding the brewed and bottled by statement, Judge Moskowitz stated, “It is likely that anyone examining the label carefully enough to read the language on the back of the label would see that the beer is brewed and bottled in Pennsylvania.” I agree that someone examining the back label would understand that the beer is brewed in Pennsylvania, but that’s the problem—the fact that a consumer would have to carefully examine the back label to glean the beer’s true origin suggests that the rest of the labeling and packaging might be misleading.
My two qualms notwithstanding, I believe that this case was correctly decided, based on the “Jamaican Style Lager” language. As Judge Moskowitz noted, consumers are exposed to numerous examples of beers with a geographic indicator modified by the word “style” (Belgian-Style, Cubano-Style), denoting that the beer is not actually made in the geographic location identified.
Plaintiffs have until April 21, 2016, to file an amended complaint, if they so choose.
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