Securities Class Action Filed Against Monster Beverage
Contending that Monster Beverage Corp. either misled or failed to disclose that it was improperly advertising, marketing and promoting its Monster Energy® drinks and thus filed materially false and misleading financial statements, a putative securities class action has been filed against the company in a federal court in California. Rausch v. Monster Beverage Corp., No. 12-2058 (S.D. Cal., filed August 21, 2012).
The filing follows news that an unnamed state attorney general subpoenaed
company records in July 2012 seeking information about “the Company’s
advertising, marketing, promotion, ingredients, usage and sale of its Monster
Energy® brand of energy drinks.” Details about that action are included in
Issue 450 of this Update. According to a news source, the company’s stock
declined nearly 11 percent the day after Monster disclosed the investigation
in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. See Bloomberg,
August 21, 2012.