An article from the BBC states that lawsuits filed against Anheuser-Busch InBev in Pennsylvania, California and other states claim that consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on beer labels. Click Here For Article.

Preliminarily, assuming that the relevant law is clear and unambiguous, and, for the sake of discussion, that the Complaint contains sufficient specificity detailing the alleged corporate unlawful wrongdoing, i.e., what the alcohol content should be, what the alcohol content is, and the alleged facts/evidence and specific relevant law detailing the allegations of unlawful actions or representations, it should be fairly easy to determine the range of likelihood whether any unlawful act has occurred, defenses to the allegations, and the range of damages if in fact any damages exist.

However, additionally, if I’m Anheuser (its board, executive officers, risk and quality control officers, and perhaps internal audit), I want to get to the bottom of this quickly – and also evaluate possible remedies for defamation or perhaps abuse of process or malicious prosecution if the allegations of unlawful conduct are unsupported.

Dave Tate, Esq. (San Francisco)