AB-InBev did not water down their beers

As was expected, a federal judge on 2 June 2014 dismissed lawsuits that claimed AB-InBev had watered down several of their beers. Many observers had commented that the issue was a non-starter right from the beginning – or why would AB-InBev do anything so daft as to break labelling laws?

Judge Donald Nugent of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, said as much when he told the plaintiffs that AB-InBev’s labelling fell within federal guidelines, which state that beers can have a tolerance of 0.3 percent above or below the amount printed on the label, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on 4 June 2014.

The lawsuits were filed in early 2013 and said that A-B’s labels overstated alcohol content, violating state laws. The lawsuits were later consolidated in an Ohio federal court.