A group of fed-up cocktail enthusiasts is suing the makers of Chi-Chi’s margaritas for allegedly falsely advertising one of their “Original Margarita” products — a malt beverage drink containing no tequila.
The class-action suit filed in Brooklyn court on Friday claims Sazerac Company Inc. created two versions of their “Original Margarita,” misleading customers by using nearly identical packaging for one drink made with tequila and triple sec and another made with malt.
According to the suit, Sazerac “decided to not just compete against other mini bottles of mixed drinks based on distilled spirits by developing and marketing a ‘pseudo cocktail’ version of Chi-Chi’s Original Margarita.”
The second beverage was “manufactured and designed to look and taste like its higher valued counterpart, but based not on distilled spirits, but a malt alcohol base,” the lawsuit alleges.
Photos of the similar-looking beverages featured in the court filing show the two bottled beverages side by side, one featuring the words “Made with Tequila & Triple Sec” beneath its name while the other does not.
The lawsuit claims the labeling for Chi-Chi’s Original Margarita is misleading because “it creates by itself erroneous impression[s] or inference as to [its] identify, or other characteristics.”
The suit also notes that the packaging and labeling of the Margarita Malt has “identical colors, theme, fonts, graphics and other matter, such as the Chi-Chi’s logo, cap in identical color, with identical grooves, and the name of ‘Original Margarita’ as the distilled spirit version.”
The offensive beverage only announces it contains malt in the “minimum type size” that is not “readily legible to potential consumers under ordinary conditions,” according to the suit.
“Those who have bought the tequila version or are aware of it, or know anything of Chi-Chi’s, will not know to glance downwards and strain their eyes because they have no reason to expect what they are buying is anything other than Chi-Chi’s ‘Original Margarita,’ containing tequila and triple sec,” the suit alleges.
The fed-up margarita fanatics also say that the two products are intentionally sold at different locations so that buyers would not be able to notice a difference.
The plaintiffs, two Queens County residents and one Suffolk County resident, each purchased the beverage from various locations in New York between April 2021 and April 2024 and claim they paid more for the product than they would have been willing to had they known it did not contain tequila.
“The Product was worth less than what Plaintiffs paid, and they would not have paid as much, absent Defendant’s false and misleading statements, omissions and/or comparisons,” the suit states.
The plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial as well as to be declared proper class action.
They also seek monetary damages and interest, reasonable fees for plaintiffs’ attorneys and experts and any other relief the court deems just and proper.
The Post has reached out to the plaintiffs’ attorneys and Chi-Chi’s owner Sazerac but didn’t immediately receive a response.
