Anheuser-Busch Leffe Beer Class Action Should Continue, Plaintiff Says

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A plaintiff is challenging an attempt by Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of misrepresenting the origin of its Leffe “abbey ale.”

The Leffe class action lawsuit alleges Anheuser-Busch deceives consumers into thinking Leffe is brewed in an actual abbey by Belgian monks, when in reality the beer is mass-produced in a factory.

Dr. Henry Vazquez last week urged a Florida federal judge to deny Anheuser-Busch’s motion to dismiss the abbey beer class action lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, arguing that he does in fact have jurisdiction to bring the case under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Vazquez claims that the Florida law requires a plaintiff making a claim for injunctive relief to show only that he is aggrieved by a deceptive act that has occurred, is currently occurring or is likely to occur at a future time.

He says he dropped his claims for monetary damages and is currently only seeking injunctive relief.

“Accordingly, even if there was no future injury to Dr. Vazquez, he still has standing for an injunctive relief claim for past aggrievement,” Vazquez says in his motion.

Vazquez filed the Anheuser-Busch class action lawsuit in April, and sought to certify a nationwide Class of consumers who purchased Leffe beer.

He was seeking monetary damages on behalf of the Class, who he says paid a premium for the beer.

However, Anheuser-Busch fought his motion for Class certification, arguing that there was no feasible way of identifying Class Members, as they are unlikely to have retained receipts documenting their purchase of the beer.

Further, Anheuser-Busch argues that the labeling of its Leffe “abbey ale” is not misleading because it refers to a type of beer, not the origin of the product.

The beer company argues that Leffe beer was first brewed by monks at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Leffe in 1240, but the abbey stopped making the beer more than 200 years ago.

Leffe beer has reportedly been brewed since then pursuant to a formal agreement with the abbey. When Anheuser-Busch acquired Leffe beer in 2008, it began brewing the beer at the AB InBev Stella Artois industrial brewery in Leuven, Belgium.

Now that Vazquez has given up his claim for monetary relief, Anheuser-Busch says the Leffe class action lawsuit no longer meets the $5 million amount-in-controversy required by the Class Action Fairness Act, and therefore the federal court does not have jurisdiction of the case.

Vazquez maintains that the Leffe class action lawsuit can still be handled in federal court because of previous court decisions that hold the language of CAFA “vests a court with CAFA jurisdiction over the claims of a putative class (before the entry of a class certification order) or after the class has been certified.”

“That is not the case here,” Vazquez argues. “This Court has not yet ruled on class certification and it is readily apparent that Dr. Vazquez was aggrieved within the meaning of FDUPTA.”

“In short, this case may still be certified as an injunctive class and relinquishing jurisdiction absent a denial of class certification would be improper,” Vazquez states.

Vazquez is represented by Ervin Amado Gonzalez, Patrick Montoya and Natalie Rico of Colson Hicks Eidson.

The Anheuser-Busch Leffe Abbey Beer Class Action Lawsuit is Vazquez, et al. v. Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC, Case No. 1:16-cv-21181, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.