Non-motoring > Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Manatee Replies: 16
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 10:24 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Manatee
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41059610

In 2012, Molson Coors reduced the ABV of Carling from 4% to 3.7%. But they continued to label it as 4%.

They did it to save money on duty, but didn't change the label, so as to avoid pub chains and supermarkets demanding a share of the savings.

This has come to light because HMRC said they should pay duty based on the 4% label.

MC says this is legal because there s a tolerance of 0.5% on the labelled strength, to allow for natural variation between batches.

I would suggest this is not natural variation. If MC gets away with this, will other brewers start deliberately labelling their products as higher strength than they actually are?

Some would say that mislabelling of gnat's urine has been going on ever since the UK was introduced to Harp and watered down Heineken in the 1960s.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 10:40 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - smokie
Cheating.

If they can consistently produce the stuff at 3.7% why do they need 0.5% tolerance?
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 10:56 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Zero
Who drinks that crap anyway?


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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:06 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - No FM2R
So according to HMRC's position in this case, if Molson Coors had gone the other way around and brewed the Carling at 4%, but labelled it as 3.7%, then HMRC would have accepted the lower duty payment and they still wouldn't have been breaking any law because of the 0.5 tolerance.

Right, that makes complete sense.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:10 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Manatee
I'm sure you could get a different counsel's opinion for that one!
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:13 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - sooty123
I'm surprised the allowed tolerance is so high.

Probably the next miselling scandal, have you been misold carp lager? If so text...
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:31 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Hard Cheese
Not cheating.

Though significant, it'd take 16 cans to get drunk not 15 ...
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 29 Aug 17 at 02:42
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:51 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - legacylad
I would be really annoyed if anyone I knew had the temerity to buy me that stuff
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 29 Aug 17 at 02:42
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:53 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - R.P.
Leffe Royale- 7.5% according to the label. Found some in an offie in Bala (of all places) £3.50 for a small bottle. But worth it. :-)
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 11:55 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Manatee
I had some Carling at the beginning of August at the village show, after the Vale IPA ran out. First for a long time. Not recommended. Tasted of very little, with a hint of rotting cabbage.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 28 Aug 17 at 11:56
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 12:18 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Zero
One can only hope that people refuse to drink it because of the scandal, and the brand goes out of business.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 12:21 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - smokie
If they were all over the place with their %ages it wouldn't be cheating, so if some people got a 4.5% while others got 3.7% that's not so bad.

Cynical cheating, especially as it seems they didn't share the spoils with their retailers.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 12:50 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - CGNorwich
I reckon the stuff fails on emission tests too.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 13:34 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - zippy
The wider problem is that there is no one monitoring weights and measures as they used to.

Tesco were selling garlic bread below weight (someone must have known).

The average pack weights always annoy me. Knowing my luck I would always get the underweight ones.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 13:43 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - sooty123
>> The wider problem is that there is no one monitoring weights and measures as they
>> used to.
>>
>>

i wonder how this came to light?
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 14:50 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - Manatee
I don't think they are cheating the taxpayer, but they are knowingly misleading the consumer.

If they are brewing it to 3.7%, it should be labelled 3.7%. The tolerance is there for variation around the the nominal, average value, not to facilitate misrepresentation - presumably.
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New Mon 28 Aug 17 15:08 
 Molson Coors - Carling, cheating or not? - No FM2R
I read somewhere, quite possibly in this article, that Carlin is brewed to +/-.25%

So, if it is already down from 4.0% to 3.7% intentionally then the variance could take it down to 3.45% which is outside the +/- .5% they are allowed.

I can see no possible conclusion to these events that will be good for Molson Coors.

One or more of;

-Pay additional duty to HMRC
-Share saving with retailers
-Annoyed and boycotting customers
-Potential law breaking

etc. etc.
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