USA: Federal Trade Commission closing investigations of Anheuser-Busch vs. MillerCoors ad claims

The Federal Trade Commission’s division of advertising practices notified MillerCoors that it’s closing an investigation of ad claims lodged by rival Anheuser-Busch, and the agency is not recommending enforcement action in the matter, St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on July 10.

Last year, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the North American unit of AB InBev, challenged MillerCoors’ ad claims that its new Coors Light can design with a wider opening provided a “smoother, more refreshing pour” and “locks in frost brewed taste.” A-B also disputed Coors Light’s ad claim that it offered the “world’s most refreshing can.”

A-B, which introduced its own vented can for Bud Light last summer, initially filed a complaint about MillerCoors’ ads with the National Advertising Division, the investigative arm of the advertising industry’s voluntary self-regulation program. NAD’s policies and procedures are established by the ad industry’s Advertising Self-Regulatory Council.

After MillerCoors declined to provide a response for NAD’s review of the advertising, the case was forwarded to the FTC to determine whether the ads violated the Federal Trade Commission Act. In a statement to the Post-Dispatch last August, Chicago-based MillerCoors called A-B’s complaint frivolous: “All of the statements regarding the can either clearly are intended as acceptable marketing puffery or have been proven through extensive testing as accurate.”

The FTC notified Chicago-based MillerCoors in a letter dated June 30 that it was closing its investigation.

“Among the factors we considered was MillerCoors’ voluntary action to cease making the claims at issue in all marketing materials, including the products’ labeling,” FTC associate director Mary Engle states in her letter to MillerCoors. “The closing of this investigation is not to be construed as a determination that a violation of law did not occur, just as the pendency of an investigation should not be construed that a violation has occurred.”

Both A-B and MillerCoors declined to comment on the FTC’s decision. “We’re focused on selling beer and the important summer selling season,” MillerCoors spokesman Pete Marino said.

11 July, 2014