A legal battle is heating up between Tabasco’s owner McIlhenny Company and the vodka maker Stoli Group USA. McIlhenny filed a complaint against Stoli for trademark infringement on Jan. 16, following the release of Stoli’s chile pepper-flavored vodka.
The filing alleges the Stoli Halapeño Pepper’s product and design infringe upon Tabasco’s trademark and trade dress. Bottles of Stoli’s new spicy vodka look suspiciously similar to a bottle of Tabasco and are “likely to cause confusion among consumers about the source,” the complaint reads. In addition to a red screw top and green wrapping along the bottleneck, the Halapeño Pepper packaging boasts a green, red, and white circular stamp — which the suit alleges is a direct dupe of Tabasco’s iconic diamond label.
Stoli announced its release of Halapeño Pepper vodka on Dec. 16. It’s the brand’s first spirit crafted in Louisiana, Tabasco’s home state. McIlhenny’s complaint says that the brand engaged in preliminary discussions with Stoli about a potential collaboration in 2024, but McIlhenny terminated the plans before the parties reached an agreement.
“In other words, when told ‘no’ by McIlhenny, Defendants took the [Tabasco] Trade Dress and, without authorization, used it to create the Infringing Trade Dress to market and drive the sales of the Defendants’ [p]roduct,” the complaint alleges.
The suit came 12 days before Louisiana-based Tabasco launched its partnership with Pernod Ricard-owned Absolut to release a spicy vodka, announced in a press release today. Plans for the Tabasco-Absolut deal began in 2025, Food & Wine reports.
Just one day after Stoli announced the launch of its hot sauce-flavored vodka, McIlhenny filed a cease-and-desist order, citing trade dress infringement. Stoli “refused” to cease production, the suit reads.
McIlhenny’s complaint comes in the wake of Stoli’s liquidation proceedings. In late 2024, the Stoli Group’s entities in the U.S. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, followed by a move earlier this month to transfer to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
