[ad_1]
The Supreme Court of Appeals has prohibited a company from selling two products that purport to be whiskey.
It also prevented the company from representing the products as whiskey or whiskey flavored when they were not, and as having an alcohol content of 43% or more when they were not.
The company was also ordered to destroy all products or advertising materials containing any offensive material within 14 days of the date of the court order.
The order was placed on Friday during the dismissal of an appeal from Milestone Beverage CC, which produces the two products: Royal Douglas and King Arthur.
The Royal Douglas label contained the expressions “Premium Quality”, “Whiskey Flavored”, “Spirits Aperitif” and “Double Distilled”.
The words or expressions “Premium”, “Whiskey Flavored”, “Spirit Aperitif” and “Double Distilled” also appeared on the King Arthur label. The base product was vodka.
The Scotch Whiskey Association, which took Milestone to court, said Milestone projected undoubted Scottish provenance for its products, which they misrepresented as Scotch whiskey alternately whiskey.
The association is the trade association for the whiskey industry.
He took the company to Pretoria Superior Court in 2015 after the continued sale of these products as whiskey despite a commitment that they would not be traded or sold as a Scotch whiskey, an imported whiskey or a South African whiskey.
The association said Milestone showed an obvious intention to smuggle liquor products such as whiskey and take advantage of the well-known Scottish reputation for whiskey products.
The application was successful when on March 4, 2019, the superior court prohibited Milestone from selling these products.
Milestone requested authorization to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals. On Friday that appeal was dismissed with costs.
The appeals court said expert tests showed that while the product had the appearance of a whiskey and could lead consumers to believe it was a whiskey, its taste had nothing to do with whiskey.
“The first impression on a customer who passes a liquor store is probably that each product is a whiskey.”
He said the interaction of the other influencing factors, such as labeling, an alcoholic strength of at least 43%, and the expressions “premium quality” and “double distillate”, all of which were closely associated with whiskey, would likely combine to create the impression that each one is a whiskey.
He said that even though the base spirit was vodka, no signs associated with vodka or geographic regions traditionally associated with vodka were used.
TimesLIVE
