Jelly Belly ECJ Suit Dismissed With Leave to Amend
A plaintiff’s “cursory, formulaic recitation” of her purchase of Jelly Belly Candy Co.’s Sport Beans did not include enough factual allegations to establish a claim for relief, a California federal court has ruled. Gomez v. Jelly Belly Candy Co., No. 17-0575 (C.D. Cal., order entered June 8, 2017). The plaintiff had alleged the candy maker’s use of the term “evaporated cane juice” (ECJ) on the packaging misled her about the product’s sugar content. Additional details on the complaint appear in Issue 629 of this Update.
“Absent from the Complaint are any factual allegations concerning the circumstances of Gomez’s purchase of the product, how she intended to use the product, whether she in fact expected a sugar-free product, whether she thought ‘evaporated cane juice’ was juice as opposed to sugar, and whether she consumed the product,” the court said, granting Jelly Belly’s motion to dismiss. However, the court ruled that Gomez had alleged enough facts to establish the possibility that consumers could be misled by the product labeling and granted leave to amend her complaint.
Issue 638
