Foster’s Beer Is Being Sued For Not Being Australian Enough

Proving once and for all that Foster’s so totally isn’t “Australian for beer,” one beautifully enlightened New Yorker has taken it upon himself to do what so many of us only dream about: He’s suing Foster’s for not actually being brewed in Australia.

Thirty-seven-year old physical therapist Leif Nelson had been a regular Foster’s customer for three years until earlier in 2015, when he learned the oh-so-grim truth: Foster’s actually had moved its brewery to Texas back in 2011 in order to cut costs.

Nelson did what any Jesse Ventura-level truth seeker would do and decided to gloriously serve Miller Brewing Company—which owns Foster’s—with a class action lawsuit. The Daily News reports that Nelson’s lawsuit alleges that Foster’s purposely and falsely gives the impression that it is brewed in Australia thanks to its-heavy-handed yet iconic advertising campaigns.

Wha!? Is Leif Nelson seriously saying that just because Foster’s says it’s “Australian for Beer” or that its beer is the best method for learning “How to Speak Australian,” they are somehow—possibly—insinuating it’s brewed Down Under?

Apparently so. But that isn’t to say that Nelson would refuse to start drinking the faux Australian beer again, should Miller Brewing Co. and its parent company, SABMiller, man up and alter the beer’s labeling.

In their defense, a spokesperson for Miller told the Daily News that Foster’s “even employs an Australian brewmaster so that the beer tastes as true to its origin as possible.” Probably not the reassurance you were hoping for, but what can you expect from the world’s second-largest brewing corporation? They’re going to defend themselves and you can best believe they will employ some high-priced lawyers to do just that.

And just in case you were wondering, this sort of lawsuit is becoming more and more commonplace in a world in which two companies basically supply the world’s beer. Beck’s and Kirin Ichiban, both owned by Anheuser-Busch, have been hit up with similar false advertising suits for not being brewed in their respective nations.

So if you’re looking for an imported beer that reflects the taste of the place it is said to come from, you may have to do a little research. Corporate takeovers combined with loose advertising ethics have made knowing what you’re drinking more complicated, indeed.