Pretoria - The Amstel Light beer can design is here to stay. Brandhouse Beverages Ltd, the brand owners of the beer, on Wednesday won its appeal against an earlier ruling made by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA).
ASA initially directed Brandhouse to withdraw the Amstel Lite cans and the shrink wrap from the market. This had to be done within three months of the ruling and the deadline was at the end of April.
This caused Brandhouse to rush to the High Court in Pretoria for an urgent order, staying the ruling until the appeals tribunal of ASA had delivered its judgment - which was done on Wednesday.
Brandhouse argued in court that if it was to adhere to the ruling by withdrawing its beer cans from the market before the appeal ruling, it would suffer irreparable harm. This was especially in light of the tribunal possibly ruling in Amstel’s favour.
Last week Judge Bertelsmann ordered that the ruling be suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.
Brandhouse’s rival, SA Breweries (SAB), initially turned to the ASA complaining that the packaging of the Amstel Lite cans looked similar to the packaging on its Castle Lite cans.
It was said that the Amstel Lite cans were a copy of Castle Lite’s green and silver colours.
SAB said it did a market survey to prove that consumers were confused between the two products. Brandhouse, however, disputed the authenticity of the survey.
Initially, ASA ruled in favour of SAB and gave Brandhouse until the end of April to withdraw its product from the shelves and to stop its advertising for the product.
Brandhouse appealed against the ruling and won.
“We are very pleased that the Advertising Industry Tribunal upheld our appeal in respect of the Amstel Lite can,” said Michael Mabasa, of Brandhouse.
Pretoria News