MillerCoors has won another battle against AB InBev in the so-called Corn Syrup War. The federal courts have prohibited the beer giant from using the claim No Corn Syrup on its packaging of Bud Light products.
In March 2019, the second largest U.S. brewer sued the market leader (inside.beer, 21.3.2019) for a USD 13 million campaign which was aired during this year’s Super Bowl (inside.beer, 5.2.2019), because consumers could get the impression that by drinking Coors Light and Miller Lite beers they were consuming high-fructose corn syrup, an artificial sweetener which is said to foster obesity.
U.S. District Judge William M. Conley issued a preliminary injunction in May that Anheuser-Busch, AB InBev’s U.S. organization, needed to refrain from all further use of mentioning corn syrup from its advertisement campaigns and on social media without further context. On Wednesday, the judge extended the preliminary ban to Anheuser-Busch's packaging.
However, Conley allowed the brewer until March 2020 to exhaust the stock of packaging it had on hand as of June 6 — about 70 million packages worth roughly USD 28 million.
