An Edo High Court on Wednesday ordered the Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc, to apologise to a customer, Prof. Ernest Izevbigie, and other consumers for wrongful inscription of “low sugar’’ on its product – Amstel Malta
The High Court judge who is also the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Esohe Ikpomwen, gave the order following Izevbigie’s allegation that the company inscribed misleading information, “low sugar,” on the can of Amstel Malt, saying the inscription was incorrect and totally misleading.
The claimant, a professor of Biochemistry former Vice Chancellor of Benson Idahosa University, Benin, had sued the company through his lawyer, Okonkwo Emmanuel of Henry Idahagbon and Co. (Trinity Chambers) on the matter.
Specifically, Izevbigie claimed that a laboratory investigation carried out on the product showed that the Amstel Malta contained more sugar than the company put on the brand.
He therefore requested the court to order that the company tenders a written apology to him as he had been injured by the deception. In addition, he also prayed the court to pronounce that the inscription on the product was misleading to the public.
In his judgment, Ikponmwen ordered that Nigerian Breweries should tender unreserved apology to members of the public who might have been lured by the “trade trick’’ of low sugar on the can.
The judge held, however, that evidence before the court indicated that the sugar content of Amstel Malt was between the approved 10 percent and 15 percent of sugar as stipulated by the regulatory authorities.
She said that the company should have indicated that the sugar content contained in the product was lower than other beverage non-alcoholic drinks rather than the “low sugar’’ inscription.
Ikponmwen held that whereas she might not grant the request suggesting that the information was deceitful, she held that it was a trade trick competition taken too far by the company, adding that the claimant’s request urging the court to hold that Amstel Malt is a normal non-alcoholic drink and not “low sugar’’ succeeded.
The judge ordered: “The defendant is ordered to apologise to the claimant and other public consumers in Nigeria for making them to erroneously believe that Amstel Malt is low in sugar within 30 days from the date of this judgment.’’
