The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has decided that Anheuser-Busch can go ahead and market Bud Extra, a beverage that combines alcohol with stimulants such as caffeine, ginseng and guarana, according to news reports.
The decision comes three weeks after a letter from attorneys general in more than 25 states asked the federal watchdog agency to investigate the company’s “aggressive marketing” of energy drinks that mix alcohol and caffeine, including Bud Extra, Miller Brewing Co.’s Sparks, and the brands Liquid Charge and Liquid Core from Oregon-based Charge Beverages (Promo Xtra, Aug. 23, 2007))
The letter expressed “serious concerns” that the brewers were using marketing techniques to link their products to energy drinks and appeal to a young demographic. The AGs alleged that the companies involved had made misleading claims about the stimulating effect of their drinks—claims that are prohibited under TTB regulations.
But the bureau ruled the three manufacturers had not violated its rules for marketing alcoholic beverages, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The agency has so far not issued a ruling on whether the drinks in question should be classified as malt beverages. That re-classification would move them into the category of distilled spirits and make them liable to higher rates of taxation.
Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Charge could still face new restrictions from the states whose legal officers signed the bureau letter because states can set their own regulations for the sale of alcoholic beverages, the report said.
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