Pom Wonderful Loses Deceptive Claim Lawsuit Against Ocean Spray

According to a news source, Pom Wonderful LLC, which was seeking $18.1
million in lost sales from Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. for falsely selling a
pomegranate juice product with just trace amounts of pomegranate juice,
lost its case following less than two hours’ deliberation by a federal jury. Pom
Wonderful LLC V. Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., No. 09-00565 (C.D. Cal., verdict reached December 6, 2011). The trial apparently became
a battle of experts who cited conflicting statistics on whether Ocean Spray
misled consumers about the quantity of pomegranate juice in its Cranberry
& Pomegranate® juice blend, which evidently contains mostly grape and
apple juice. Pom Wonderful sought to show that Ocean Spray took advantage
of Pom’s extensive medical research into the purported health benefits of
pomegranate juice. The company has reportedly lost two other consumer
deception cases filed against Welch Foods Inc. and Tropicana Products Inc. See
The National Law Journal, December 6, 2011.