George Clooneys Casamigos sued for allegedly charging super premium prices for less than pure agave tequila
George Clooney, or at least his tequila, may not be as smooth as he makes out.The Hollywood star helped make Casamigos the fourth best-selling tequila brand in the world, but it’s now the subject of a lawsuit claiming consumers have been paying “super premium prices” for an inferior quality product.Casamigos and another premium tequila brand, Don Julio, both claim they are made exclusively with 100% Blue Weber agave and retail for $50 to $150 per bottle as a result.Cheaper tequilas, known as “mixtos,” require only 51% of the sugar in them comes from the agave plant, with the remainder usually ordinary cane sugar.The new class-action lawsuit against Diageo, the parent company which owns both brands, claims that according to lab tests, a significant amount of the alcohol in Casamigos and Don Julio (who was a real person) is actually from cane sugar, which is much cheaper to produce.The federal suit was filed earlier this week in the Eastern New York division of the US District Court by Avi Pusatezri, a New Yorker who owns a company that teaches mixology, Chaim Mishulovin, and restaurant Sushi Tokyo.The plaintiffs are seeking $5 million each in damages.The case cites a new form of testing that can determine whether tequila has been adulterated with cane sugar.
Ironically for tequila enthusiasts, if the lawsuit proves true, it would suggest they have been drinking potentially inferior products without noticing a significant difference.In a statement, the firm behind the suit, Hagens Berman, told me, “Diageo marketed its tequila brands as ‘luxury’ and ‘super-premium’ and sold them at prices that reflected those promises to consumers.Diageo is one of the biggest companies in this industry, but it’s not above the law, and we believe this deception has a real price tag.”The lawsuit is a fresh headache for Diageo after it only recently resolved longstanding disputes with Diddy over his Ciroc vodka and Deleon tequila brands.Although Clooney and bu...