Consumer Deception and Geographic Brand Names – KONA BREWING CO.

In the past few years the alcohol beverage industry has seen numerous consumer protection lawsuits centered around allegedly deceptive advertising statements on alcohol beverage brands, such as “Handcrafted” for Tito’s vodka.  We previously blogged about this in the context of safe harbor defenses to such claims based on COLA approval.

We may be seeing a new front in these consumer protection lawsuits related to geographic brand names with a case filed on February 28, 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Craft Brew Alliance, Inc., owner of the KONA BREWING CO. brand of beer.

In 2010, Craft Brew Alliance, which is partially owned by brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, acquired the KONA BREWING CO. brand which was started in the Hawaiian city of Kona in 1994.  After acquiring the brand, Craft Brew Alliance began contract brewing KONA BREWING CO. beer throughout the mainland U.S. to increase its distribution.  Obviously the brand name directly references the Hawaiian city of Kona and brand imagery, advertising and promotion all rely heavily on association with Kona and Hawaii.  The class action lawsuit alleges that the brand name and Hawaiian brand imagery are deceptive and misleading to consumers who believe the beer originates from Kona, when in fact it now does not.  A copy of the complaint may be found HERE.

Adopting a geographic brand name can be a risky proposition for this very reason.  Parties often adopt geographic brand names because they hope to associate the product with the positive imagery of the location in the minds of consumers.  Oftentimes the products also originate from, or are associated with the place identified, further re-enforcing that association in the minds of consumers.  This is not a problem when the branded goods actually originate from the place identified in the brand name, but what happens in a case such as this where the brand is acquired and is no longer exclusively associated with the place in the name?  Does it matter that KONA BREWING CO. beer is still brewed in Kona in small amounts even though the majority is brewed elsewhere?  Would it be more deceptive if there were no longer any physical connection of the product with Kona?  Is it more egregious because the beer was originally brewed in Kona and now it is brewed elsewhere?  Is this fair to consumers?  Is it fair to Kona and its citizens to have a mainland company using the name of their city to profit with little connection to Kona or Hawaii?

All very interesting questions, no doubt, and we will see if any of them are answered in this litigation (or whether the case is settled for a payment to the class plaintiffs with no admission of wrongdoing by the brewer).  The standard in any of these cases is will consumers be deceived or misled in some way.  If this can be proven by the plaintiffs, then Craft Brew Alliance may have a serious problem. The above questions will no doubt come into play during the pendency of this suit, so it will certainly be an interesting case should it proceed to a decision.

Protecting Wine Origins is Pro-Consumer and Pro-Industry

TTB’s attempt to put an end to an inherently misleading labeling practice and protect the AVA wine origin labeling rules has garnered significant reaction from certain commentators and some in the industry.  In order to shed some light on the proposed amendments to federal labeling rules and why Napa Valley Vintners, the Wine Institute, over 50 members of Congress and others have supported TTB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 160, we have prepared the following summary.

I. Current regulations allow certain wineries to employ misleading labeling practices.

Producers selling wine in interstate commerce must obtain a Certificate of Label Approval (“COLA”) and comply with federal regulations aimed at protecting consumers from misleading labeling practices.  This includes federal standards for using vintage date, grape variety designations, and wine origin designations such as county, state, and country appellations and American Viticultural Areas (“AVAs”).

Wineries wishing to avoid enforcement of these federal truth-in-labeling standards can do so simply by filing for a COLA exemption and noting on the wine bottle that the wine is “For Sale Only” in the state in which the producing winery is located.  This leads to the potential for misleading wine labeling practices.  For example, federal regulations require that an AVA wine sold in interstate commerce with a 2015 vintage date must be made from at least 95% grapes grown in that vintage.  But those regulations do not apply, and therefore would not prevent, a wine with a certificate of label approval exemption from using a lower percentage of 2015 harvested grapes and still being labeled as “2015.”  Wines with certificates of label approval can be labeled with a varietal name, such as Pinot Noir, if it is made from at least 75% of grapes of that variety, but get an exemption and slap on a “For Sale Only” sticker, and then there is no obligation under federal regulations that the wine meet that 75% requirement.

Certain wineries have taken advantage of this COLA exemption loophole to designate their wine with an AVA while not complying with federal standards governing wine origin labeling, specifically, 27 C.F.R. Sec. 4.25 which requires that wine labeled with an AVA (a) be derived 85 percent or more from grapes grown within the boundaries of that AVA, and (b) be fully finished within the state in which the AVA is located.  This “fully finished” federal requirement ensures that California wine production and labeling laws apply to wines that are identified with a California appellation or AVA.

These federal appellation labeling rules assure consumers that when they buy an appellation-designated wine, they are buying a product wherein both the grape source and the place of production are closely tied to the named place.  Absent such rules, retail shelves could be stocked with wine labeled as “Burgundy” that was made in Sweden, “Barolo” that was actually produced in Slovenia, or “Sonoma Coast” made in Alaska.

II. TTB’s Notice 160 Proposes to Close the Loophole By Requiring All Wines to Follow the Same Vintage, Variety, and Appellation Labeling Standards.

In September 2015, 51 members of Congress wrote to TTB with a fairly simple request:  “ensure that all wines bearing AVA terms—regardless of where they are sold—meet the clear and understandable American Viticultural Area rules.”

On June 22, 2016, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) responded by issuing Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 160, in which the agency proposed eliminating the COLA-exemption loophole by requiring COLA-exempt wines to comply with federal standards for vintage, varietal, and wine origin designations and to keep records to support such labeling claims.  TTB subsequently granted a 90-day extension on September 8, 2016 and, in so doing, requested “comments regarding whether any geographic reference to the source of the grapes used in the wine could be included on a wine label in a way that would not be misleading with regard to the source of the wine” (emphasis added).

III. NVV and Wine Institute Support Notice 160 to Put an End to Misleading Labeling Practices.

Napa Valley Vintners (NVV), a non-profit trade association with over 500 members and our client, issued a comment letter supporting Notice 160, pointing out that the COLA exemption loophole was being used to mislead consumers and allow COLA-exempt wines to “unfairly benefit from the goodwill and brand recognition of appellation names without having to comply with the appellation regulations.” 

NVV also pointed out that out-of-state wineries passing off their products as California wines by using the names of California appellations on their wine labels were able to avoid compliance with state laws regarding wine production and labeling.  For example, wines produced outside of California but labeled with the name of a California AVA have no obligation to follow the state’s conjunctive labeling, wine composition and production, or misleading brand name statutes.

Similarly, wines produced outside of Oregon but using the name of an Oregon AVA, would have no requirement to follow the much stricter Oregon varietal composition (requiring at least 90% for most varieties) and appellation of origin (requiring 100% from Oregon and 95% for all other appellations).  As David Adelsheim, founder of Oregon’s Adelsheim Vineyard, pointed out in his support of Notice 160, “the reputation of Oregon’s AVAs, hard won through years of experimentation and work” would suffer as a result of allowing COLA exempt wines to avoid enforcement of state wine-related laws.

After significant consultation, Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) and Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy association representing over a thousand California wineries and affiliated businesses responsible for 85 percent of the nation’s wine production and more than 90 percent of U.S. wine exports, issued a joint letter in further support of Notice 160, noting that the proposed amendments “put an end to the inherently misleading practice of using a Certificate of Label Approval … exemption to avoid compliance with federal labeling laws.”  Sonoma County Vintners also issued a letter in full support of the NVV and Wine Institute position.

IV. NVV and Wine Institute Put Forward a Proposal that Allows For Optional Grape Source Information for COLA Exempt Wines.

In their joint letter, NVV and Wine Institute directly respond to TTB’s request for information as to whether grape source information could be included on COLA-exempt wines in a manner that was not misleading as to wine origin designations.  The joint proposal directly addresses concerns that Notice 160 would prevent producers from providing consumers with truthful information regarding where the grapes used to make the wine came from, and at the same time protects AVA names as designators of wine origin.  It also addresses concerns raised by wineries that had previously used COLA exemptions suggesting that they could continue to label their wine with truthful vintage and variety designations..

The NVV / Wine Institute proposal permits wineries to provide the following “Grape Source Information” on their wine:  (a) the name of the county(-ies) and state(s), or just the state(s), where all of the grapes are grown; (b) the percentage of the wine derived from grapes grown in each county or state shown on the label; and (c) the city and state, or just the state, where the wine was fully finished.  In order to avoid any confusion with wine origin designations, no name of an AVA (other than a county or a state) could be used as part of the Grape Source Information, and the wine itself would have to be designated using the “American” appellation.  By using the American Appellation, (under current Federal regulations), the wine could also be designated with the vintage and grape varietal.

In short, NVV and Wine Institute are in favor of truthful labeling practices that protect the integrity of the AVA system.  The goal of the joint proposal is simple:  when consumers come across a wine labeled with an AVA name, they should be assured that the wine actually meets the legal standards for AVA labeling.

wine-label-example-1

V. Support for Notice 160 comes from Industry Members That Believe Protecting Wine Origin Labeling is both Pro-Consumer, Pro-Grower, and Pro-Vintner.

Notice 160 is supported by a broad swath of industry members that believe the integrity of wine origin labeling regulations is essential to the U.S. wine industry.  Regional associations (including the New York Wine Industry Association and Washington Wine Institute) and industry members from well-established as well as up-and-coming wine growing regions have written to TTB to note their support for the proposed amendments.

For example, Andy Beckstoffer, a noted grape grower with vineyards in Napa Valley as well as the Red Hills Lake County AVA wrote TTB to voice approval of Notice 160, stating:

It is vitally important to grape growers that the integrity of the AVA system be maintained, and I applaud TTB’s efforts in ensuring that all wine labeled with the name of an AVA meet the well-established federal wine labeling requirements.  Grape growers, whether they farm vineyards in well established AVAs or in newer AVAs, benefit greatly from regulatory efforts to protect those place names.

This sentiment was shared by the High Plains Winegrowers Association, a group of winegrowers and vintners from the Texas High Plains AVA.  They feared that the current COLA exemption loophole “is detrimental to Texas wineries that support locally grown wine grapes,” and further concluded that “[f]ailing to uniformly treat the labeling of all wine—whether distributed in-state or in interstate commerce—results in inequitable treatment within the same industry.”  Douglas Lewis, a Texas Winemaker, also supports Notice 160 because it “helps consumers get more accurate information [about wine origin] by closing the loop hole.”  And Andrew Chalk, a Dallas based wine writer, noted that by eliminating the COLA exemption loophole, TTB would be “remov[ing] the biggest impediment to the Texas wine industry’s growth.”

***

Notice 160 has caught the attention of industry members since it was first issued back in June, over 170 days ago, as more than 100 comments have been submitted to TTB on this matter.  TTB will consider those comments as it comes to a decision on whether: (a) the COLA exemption loophole should continue to exist; and, (b) additional and truthful grape source information can be included on such wines in a way that does not undermine the AVA system for wine origin designation.

Wine industry members and consumers who believe that wine is a product of place and that place names are worthy of protection should support Notice 160.  Although certain individuals may benefit financially from the COLA-exemption loophole, that is no reason for the federal government to allow an inherently misleading labeling practice to continue unabated.  Moreover, elimination of the COLA-exemption loophole does not necessarily prohibit wineries from providing additional truthful, non-misleading information about grape sourcing.  Any regulation that allows for such information, however, must also be crafted in a manner that maintains the integrity of the AVA regulatory system.  The joint NVV / Wine Institute proposal does just that.

Furthermore, if the U.S. allows U.S. wineries to skirt the rules for proper use of American appellations and American Viticultural Areas, then the U.S. will be in no position to insist that other countries require that their wineries also follow the rules in respect of American appellations and American Viticultural Areas.  Undoubtedly wine production is less costly in countries outside the U.S., and if wine grapes from Napa Valley can be shipped to Texas and the wine produced in Texas is allowed to use the “Napa Valley” AVA on the label, there is no basis to object to a Chinese or Canadian winery producing a “Napa Valley” wine from Napa Valley grapes shipped to those countries.  Not only is that bad for the U.S. industry, but it diminishes the value of the AVA and harms all consumers.

NOTE – DP&F serves as outside counsel to several regional wine trade associations including Napa Valley Vintners with interests in protecting the integrity of regional appellations.