If you’ve ever grabbed a bottle of Fireball or Parrot Bay at a gas station in New York, you might be part of a lawsuit and not even know it.
According to The Spirits Business, A federal judge has just allowed a class action to move forward against Sazerac, the company behind both brands, after customers said they were misled about what they were actually buying.
The issue centers around “malt-based” versions of Fireball and Parrot Bay that have been sold at convenience stores and gas stations since 2020. In New York and in several other states, true distilled spirits can only be sold at licensed liquor stores. To get around that, Sazerac created lower-alcohol malt versions of its popular products and put them on shelves at places where whisky and rum wouldn’t normally be allowed.
The problem, according to the lawsuits, is that these bottles looked almost exactly like the real thing. One plaintiff, Sharon Pizarro, says she bought Fireball at gas stations for years, thinking it was the well-known Fireball Cinnamon Whisky that comes in at 33% alcohol by volume…