Putative Class Actions Filed Against Chobani and Fage for Alleged Deceptive Labeling

A pair of plaintiffs has filed putative class actions against Chobani LLC and Fage Dairy Processing SA in New York federal court claiming that the yogurt producers deceptively marketed yogurt as healthy despite its high sugar content. Stoltz v. Chobani LLC, No. 1:14-cv-3827 (E.D.N.Y., filed June 19, 2014); Stoltz v. Fage Dairy Processing SA, No. 1:14-cv-3826 (E.D.N.Y., filed June 19, 2014). The nearly identical suits allege that Chobani and Fage used a label intended “to create consumer confusion by causing purchasers to impute any meaning to the 0 percent that consumers wish, such as that the products lack sugar, carbohydrates, calories or any other content which a consumer may believe is unhealthy,” according to the complaint against Fage. The complaints include pictures of the defendants’ products and pictures of competitors’ products to illustrate the industry standard of including what nutrition levels the “0 percent” refers to, such as fat or sugar, in contrast to Fage’s and Chobani’s labels, which do not indicate what nutrient is at 0 percent. The complaint against Chobani includes an additional accusation of deception based on the use of the term “evaporated cane juice” (ECJ), which plaintiffs allege is simply sugar. More information about ECJ and deceptive labeling lawsuits appears in Issue 525 of this Update.

Issue 528