35 Attorneys General Ask FTC to Limit Amount of Alcohol in Single-Serving Can

Attorneys General in 35 states and the San Francisco City Attorney have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to limit the amount of alcohol sold in a single-serving can. The move is aimed at reducing the amount of alcohol in Four Loko, the Des Moines Register reports.

Four Loko is sold in 23.5-ounce cans, and contains about the same amount of alcohol as five beers, according to Tom Miller, Attorney General of Iowa. He said it cannot be safely consumed on a single occasion and needs to be further regulated by federal authorities.

The FTC had charged Phusion Project, which makes Four Loko, with violating federal law by making false or misleading claims that a can of the beverage can be safely consumed on a single occasion, and by not disclosing the number of alcohol servings per can.

In October, Phusion agreed to change the labels of the cans so that they state the drinks contain as much alcohol as four to five cans of beer. The company has not admitted to any wrongdoing, but says it will relabel the drinks to better inform its customers.

That doesn’t go far enough, the Attorneys General argue. They want the amount of alcohol per can reduced to two servings.

Four Loko used to contain high concentrations of caffeine and alcohol, and was known as “blackout in a can,” the article notes. Under pressure from state and federal authorities, Phusion removed caffeine from the drink and stopped marketing it as an energy drink.