A class action lawsuit filed in the US District Court of the Eastern District of New York has alleged that Diageo North America has falsely marketed its tequila brands as 100% agave.
The plaintiffs - Avi Pusateri, Sushi Tokyo Inc and Chaim Mishulovin - allege that Diageo North America has sold “adulterated tequila to consumers” and argue that “plaintiffs paid super-premium prices for Casamigos and Don Julio tequila, but they received neither a premium product nor 100% Blue Weber Agave tequila. Instead, an investigation of Casamigos and Don Julio tequilas has shown that they consist of significant concentrations of cane or other types of alcohol rather than pure tequila”.
Pusateri is a resident of New York who owns and operates Jazz Age Cocktails, Mishulovin is a resident of New Jersey and Sushi Tokyo Inc is a “New York corporation that is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, where it serves classic Japanese inspired sushi and related food and beverages”.
The lawsuit claims that if the plaintiffs had know the truth about the ingredients in Don Julio and Casamigos, they would not have bought the products or would have paid less.
The lawsuit is seeking damages of more than US$5,000,000.
The filing cited the website Mezcalistas which has reported that “numerous agave farmers protested the lack of tequila industry regulatory compliance” and claims that The Additive Free Alliance has shown that it is possible to use Nuclear Magnetic resonance to “confirm if tequila has been adulterated with cane alcohol”.
The plaintiffs have demanded a jury trial for all claims asserted in the complaint.