US court throws out class action over Diageo's 100% agave claim

A US district judge has dismissed a proposed class action alleging that Diageo's Casamigos and Don Julio Tequilas were not made exclusively from Blue Weber agave. Judge Lashann DeArcy Hall of the Eastern District of New York granted the company's motion on 30 September.

The ruling ends, for now, a complaint first filed in May last year by consumers Avi Pusateri and Chaim Mishulovin, together with the Japanese-inspired restaurant Sushi Tokyo. The three plaintiffs had pursued Diageo North America for allegedly misleading purchasers of its Tequila brands.

Diageo denied the allegations in July when it filed its initial response, and it had already moved to dismiss a similar class action in Florida the preceding October, with the New York motion following days later. The company's position has now carried the day.

Mexican regulations require any Tequila labelled '100% de agave' or '100% agave azul' to use sugars drawn solely from the Blue Weber variety. The plaintiffs argued that buyers had paid extra for Casamigos and Don Julio in the belief that both met this standard.

The case rested on laboratory testing commissioned after initial work by the Additive Free Alliance, an organisation focused on transparency in agave-spirit production. The plaintiffs tested five bottles purchased directly: Casamigos Blanco, Reposado and Añejo, plus Don Julio Reposado and Don Julio 1942 Añejo.

Their findings, the complaint said, showed none of the five samples was made entirely from agave. Because the products were said to share an adulterated base spirit, the plaintiffs argued the conclusion extended across Diageo's wider Tequila portfolio rather than stopping at the bottles they sampled.

The court found that reasoning too thin. Diageo had argued the plaintiffs failed to show their own bottles were tested, or that adulteration was so widespread their purchases were likely tainted. Judge Hall said the testing fell short of proving 'systemic and widespread adulteration'.

She wrote that the court 'struggled' to see how five samples could reasonably infer a defendant was engaged in 'ubiquitous, systemic mislabelling'. News reporting on adulteration in the wider Tequila industry, she added, had not named Diageo or its products.

What Diageo says now

Diageo welcomed the outcome in a statement. 'We are gratified that the court rejected plaintiffs' adulteration allegations in their entirety,' it said, adding that its two brands 'are made from 100% Blue Weber agave' and that the company was pleased to put the claims behind it.

The victory is partial. Diageo continues to face similar lawsuits in San Francisco and in Miami-Dade County, Florida, as well as in Canada. Each will be fought on its own facts, and the New York ruling sets no binding precedent in those jurisdictions, though it will be read closely.

The two brands at stake

Don Julio is the world's second biggest-selling Tequila brand, trailing only Jose Cuervo, according to The Brand Champions 2026 report, with 4.5 million nine-litre cases sold in 2025. Casamigos, founded by George Clooney, ranked seventh, shifting 1.9 million cases last year.

Diageo bought Casamigos in 2017 in a deal worth US$1 billion. The label has since become a drag on the portfolio: in the 12 months to 30 June 2026, sales of Don Julio fell 19.2% and Casamigos dropped 27.7%, a sharper decline than its larger stablemate.

The company has responded with a plan to reposition Casamigos through a new marketing campaign aimed at restoring competitiveness. It also intends to push Astral Tequila, an affordably priced label acquired in 2020 alongside Aviation Gin, as it widens the price spectrum.

We have been tracking Diageo's cost pressures across its spirits operations, most recently when Unite the union opened a strike ballot at the Cameronbridge distillery over a labour dispute affecting around 100 workers. The legal and labour fronts now run in parallel for the drinks giant.

What the New York judge has not decided is whether any adulteration occurred, only that the plaintiffs failed to plead it adequately. The laboratory findings that launched the case remain on the record, and the Additive Free Alliance testing that prompted them has not been litigated to a conclusion.

The next test arrives in the California and Florida actions, where plaintiffs will have the chance to plead more specific evidence of how their own purchases were affected. Diageo's confidence in its '100% Blue Weber' claim will face fresh scrutiny in each of those courts.

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