818 Tequila Lawsuit: Allegations, Dismissal, and Trademark Case

The class action lawsuit against 818 Tequila, the brand founded by Kendall Jenner, was voluntarily dismissed in January 2026, roughly four months after plaintiffs filed it in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The case had accused the company of falsely marketing its products as “100% agave” when independent testing allegedly showed non-agave alcohol in the bottles. No public settlement, judgment, or explanation for the dismissal appears in the court docket.¹

What the Complaint Alleged

Plaintiffs Lauren Negrin and Arturo Vallejo sued Calabasas Beverage Company and K & Soda (operating as 818 Spirits) on September 23, 2025, under docket number 1:25-cv-24360, with Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga presiding.¹ The complaint accused 818 of “knowingly selling adulterated tequila” by using sugars other than those derived from Blue Weber agave during fermentation, even though the labels read “100% agave azul.”²

The plaintiffs said independent laboratory testing had shown that certain 818 products fell short of the 100% agave standard, and they argued consumers had overpaid for a spirit they believed was pure agave.³ The Miami firm Rennert Vogel Mandler & Rodriguez filed the case. The same firm had filed similar suits against other tequila brands.⁴

How 818 Tequila Responded

818 called the case “without merit” and filed a motion to dismiss in early January 2026. The defense had several parts.

On the merits, the company said its products comply with Mexico’s Official Mexican Standard (NOM-006-SCFI-2012), which governs tequila production, and that its labels had been approved by both the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) in Mexico and the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Private lawsuits, the defense argued, should not override those regulatory determinations.³

On standing, the company noted that the complaint never identified which bottles the plaintiffs had bought, who ran the lab tests, or when the tests were done. The plaintiffs, the defense said, relied on “generalized claims about laboratory results from unidentified bottles bought at unknown locations.”⁵ 818 also moved to strike the class action component, arguing that differences among individual consumers made class treatment inappropriate, and it raised the possibility that some consumers had agreed to private arbitration, which could block class litigation altogether.³

The Voluntary Dismissal

The court never ruled on that motion. On January 28, 2026, the plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, and Judge Altonaga entered an order closing the case the next day. The case had been referred to mediation in November 2025, with a scheduling order entered at the same time, but the docket contains no settlement, judgment, or public explanation of why the plaintiffs walked away.¹

Part of a Wider Round of Tequila Suits

The 818 case was one of several class actions filed in 2025 accusing well-known tequila brands of selling adulterated products under “100% agave” labels. The wave started in May 2025 with a lawsuit against Diageo North America over its Casamigos and Don Julio brands, filed in the Eastern District of New York. That complaint alleged those tequilas contained “significant concentrations of cane or other types of alcohol.”⁶ By July, two more suits had followed against Diageo in Florida and California, the California case invoking federal racketeering (RICO) law.⁷

The California suit against Diageo was the first to include specific lab results, citing carbon isotope ratio analysis that put agave-derived ethanol as low as 33% in some tested samples.⁷ Similar testing formed the basis for suits against Cincoro (partly owned by Michael Jordan, filed August 2025), Costco’s Kirkland Signature tequila line (filed October and November 2025), and Teremana (founded by Dwayne Johnson).⁸ The cases share a common theory: that Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and stable carbon isotope testing can distinguish agave-derived ethanol from cheaper cane or corn alcohol.⁹

Every defendant has denied the allegations. Diageo called the claims “outrageous and categorically false,” and Cincoro said it “stands firmly behind the integrity of the brand.”⁹¹⁰ The Lunazul lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in April 2026, while the other cases remained pending as of early 2026.⁸

The 2022 Trademark Suit Over the 818 Name

The adulteration case was not 818’s first courtroom appearance. In February 2022, Austin-based Tequila 512 sued Kendall Jenner and K & Soda in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that 818 had copied its branding. Both brands used three-digit area codes as names and featured black text on a yellow label.¹¹ Tequila 512’s owner, ClipBandits LLC, brought claims of trademark infringement, unfair competition, and unfair business practices under California state law. The complaint also alleged that a promotional image in the Kim Kardashian Hollywood mobile app showed an actual bottle of Tequila 512 rather than 818.¹²

The case settled within nine months. On November 7, 2022, the parties filed a stipulation for dismissal with prejudice, each side bearing its own legal costs.¹¹ According to Tequila 512 CEO Nick Matzorkis, both companies kept the right to use their existing names but agreed to change their labels to make clear the brands are unrelated. Tequila 512 added “Est. 2012” to its packaging.¹³

1
CourtListener. Negrin v. Calabasas Beverage Company, LLC
2
Mezcalistas. Four New Brands Implicated in Growing Tequila Adulteration Scandal
3
The Spirits Business. 818 Tequila Challenges 100% Agave Lawsuit
4
Food & Wine. Tequila Lawsuits Labeling Controversy
5
Yahoo News. Kendall Jenner 818 Tequila Claps Back
6
Food & Wine. Diageo Class Action Lawsuit Tequila Purity Claims
7
Drinks International. Two New Lawsuits Filed Against Diageo Amid Tequila Adulteration Claims
8
Truth in Advertising. Tequilas Marketed as 100% Agave
9
KQED. What’s in Your Tequila? California Lawsuit Claims Some Labels Mislead Consumers
10
The Spirits Business. Cincoro Faces Lawsuit Over 100% Agave Claim
11
The Fashion Law. Kendall Jenner’s 818 Named in Trademark Lawsuit by Rival Tequila Co.
12
Klemchuk LLP. Tequila 512 Sues Kendall Jenner Over 818 Tequila
13
San Antonio Express-News. Tequila 512, 818 Tequila Lawsuit