Beverage Mislabeling Suit Dismissed After Plaintiffs Admit They Knew ECJ Was Sugar

A California federal court has ruled that plaintiffs who admitted to reading Healthy Beverage’s website cannot sue the company for listing evaporated cane juice (ECJ) on the ingredient list rather than sugar. Swearingen v. Healthy Beverage, No. 13-­4385 (N.D. Cal., order entered May 5, 2017). The plaintiffs initially filed a putative class action claiming Healthy Beverage misled consumers by listing evaporated cane juice on their product labels, but they later alleged in an amended complaint that the company’s website “is incorporated into the label for each of Defendants’ products” and that the website states “cane juice is natural sugar.” Given those allegations, the court dismissed the suit with prejudice, holding, “An allegation of reliance, which is necessary for all of plaintiffs’ claims” under California consumer­ protection laws and unjust enrichment, was “impossible . . . [t]he Court will not allow them a third bite at the apple to amend a factual allegation that is squarely inconsistent with a prior allegation.”

Issue 634