Fakes, Fraud & Foolishness

April 1, 2015 – Reading about alcohol is never dull!  Take the following news stories, which we found all in one day:

A company in Australia was flogging beer in a package that included a map of Australia, and the wording “100% owned” and “made from Australia’s finest malt” on the label.  One problem:  the beer was made in China.  Independent Liquor Group, a cooperative set up to increase the buying power of small independent retailers, was ordered to pay fines totaling AUS$10,200 (US$7,770) by the Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).  Sounds like they got off lightly.  No word on what happened to the beer.
In Taiwan a company called Tequila Development has been importing bulk red wine from Spain and Chile, which they bottled in Taiwan using French labels.  They actually imported premium French wines then used their printing facilities to copy the labels.  It is believed the company sold around 400,000 bottles with an estimated profit of more than US$3 million.  Prosecutors searched the company’s premises and seized over 30,000 bottles of counterfeit wines. The company’s CEO denies all charges.
Did you know that Comrade Putin has been trying to grab back rights to Stolichnaya’s trademark?  He won the other day in Holland where a District Court in Rotterdam ordered Stoli’s owner, SPI Group to hand over the brand to Russia’s state-owned Soyuzplodoimport within three months or be fined $55,000 a day.  SPI Group is also liable for damages, as yet unspecified.  That judge wasn’t messing around.

The ruling covers the Benelux countries, an economic union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.  The trademark for Moskovskaya vodka is also a part of the deal.  The lawsuit dates back to 2003 and has to do with whether Russian billionaire businessman Yuri Shefler legitimately acquired the rights in the 1997 (the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991).  He sold the rights to SPI.  Since 2000, Vladimir Putin’s mission has been confiscation involving lawsuits all over the world.  SPI has won several recently in the USA, Austria and Chile.
In the “Foolishness” category, in England recently, Heineken avoided a spanking by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after a youth alcohol council claimed one of it ads was irresponsible for implying alcohol was key to success.  We’ve been wrong all these years???

The offending ad showed a couple of Heineken bottles being clinked together with the text “Post Match Ritual”.  Wow.  How offensive is that!  No people.  No drinking.  No frothy beer being poured.

Heineken sponsors the Heineken Cup rugby competition, hence the ad which makes perfect sense.  The whole thing was so tiresome and ridiculous suffice it to say the ASA had the good sense to say it didn’t breach its code.  The politically correct police are running amok worldwide.