Court Dismisses Capri Sun Citric Acid Lawsuit

An Illinois court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging Kraft Heinz Foods Co. misleads consumers by marketing Capri Sun as free of preservatives despite containing citric acid. Tarzian v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., No. 18-7148 (N.D. Ill., E. Div., entered October 10, 2019). The court first found that (i) the plaintiffs “failed to allege that the situs of the transactions at issue occurred ‘primarily and substantially’ in Illinois” and dismissed one allegation on behalf of nonresident plaintiffs for lack of standing and (ii) the plaintiffs lacked standing to seek injunctive relief.

The court then turned to the argument that Kraft Heinz’ statements about “no artificial preservatives” were false or misleading. “Plaintiffs’ allegations detail the practices commonly used to manufacture citric acid throughout the industry before concluding: ‘Thus, Defendant’s citric acid is artificial.’ That is too great of an inferential leap,” the court held. “To satisfy the pleading standards, Plaintiffs need to draw a connection between the common industry practice and the actual practice used by Kraft. Even drawing all reasonable inferences in the Plaintiffs’ favor, the complaint fails to draw this nexus, and the Court cannot draw it for Plaintiffs. Because Plaintiffs’ allegations do not link the allegedly artificial citric acid to the actual citric acid used by Kraft, Plaintiffs have failed to allege sufficient facts showing that Kraft’s ‘no artificial preservatives’ statement was false.”