Controversies
Monster Beverage Corporation has been criticized for its policy to sue companies or groups which use the word "Monster" or the letter "M" in their marketing for copyright infringement. Examples include the aquarium hobbyist site MonsterFishKeepers.com, a beverage review site which published an unfavorable review of the Monster Energy drink and a Vermont microbrewery which marketed a beer named "Vermonster". Monster Beverage dropped the lawsuit against the microbrewery due to the negative publicity the lawsuit generated.
In August 2012, the Beastie Boys filed a lawsuit against the company for copyright infringement over Monster's use of their music in an online campaign.
In December 2011, 14 year old Anais Fournier died of "cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity" after drinking two 710 ml cans of Monster Energy drink, containing a combined amount of ~475 mg caffeine (~34 mg/ 100 ml, like most energy drinks). Fournier had a pre-existing heart condition, as well as Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. In October 2012, her parents sued the company. A Freedom of Information Request revealed that from 2004 to 2012 the Food and Drug Administration had received reports of five deaths that were possibly linked to this energy drink.
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