Environmental pressure group wins in court against brewer Radeberger

Germany’s major brewer Radeberger suffered a defeat in court over its dodgy bottle deposit dealings with its Mexican import Corona Extra. On 19 December 2012 a Frankfurt court told Radeberger it had to pay the claimant, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environmental Aid DUH), the cease-and-desist fee of EUR 243,43 (USD 323). As the fine is so small, Radeberger has no right to appeal against the ruling.

In the summer of 2012, DUH accused Radeberger (Radeberger, Jever, Schöfferhofer) of falsely declaring the Corona bottles as returnable and refillable containers. As the DUH discovered, Radeberger for years had sold Corona beer in allegedly returnable bottles for which it charged German consumers EUR 0.08 in deposit, whereas it should have charged EUR 0.25 per bottle as the bottles were in fact new – and thus legally speaking, non-returnable.

In its defence, Radeberger had argued that the bottles had always been sent back to the producer, Modelo, in Mexico where they were refilled and then shipped to other markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

When this practice was discovered, Radeberger signed a cease and desist letter, but refused to pay the fees of the warning.

As DUH reported on 10 January 2013, the court proved DUH right. Because the bottles had been re-filled only once and not twice – as the German beverage packaging law requires – Radeberger had not set up a proper recycle system for Corona. This has since been rectified.

Radeberger Group said on 11 January 2013 that the court at no time dealt with DUH’s claim that Radeberger had intentionally, rather than accidentally, deceived consumers over the nature of the Corona bottles. Radeberger added that it had sold non-returnable Corona bottles because of a misunderstanding between Radeberger and Modelo as concerns Germany’s beverage packaging laws. Therefore, Radeberger strongly refutes DUH’s several claims that it had knowingly and deliberately mislead consumers.