Even if Kauai Coffee pods are “certified 100% compostable,” as its ads claim, the National Advertising Division (NAD) says the company does not make clear to consumers that the pods can only be composted in industrial facilities rather than backyard compost piles. NAD has recommended that Kauai discontinue existing print and website advertising or modify it to “clearly and conspicuously disclose” that the single-serve pods are only compostable in certain facilities. The ad board confirmed that the pods have been certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, the official agency for recognition of compostable products, but noted that the lack of disclosure may be a violation of the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides. Issue 635
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Energy-drink company Rockstar faces a putative class action alleging the company underfilled cans of its coffee drinks, giving the company an unfair competitive advantage and shortchanging consumers. Podawiltz v. Rockstar, Inc., No. 17-0477 (D. Ore., filed March 26, 2017). The plaintiff claims he bought several cans of Rockstar’s coffee drinks labeled “15 fl oz [473 ml],” but that independent lab testing showed the cans contained an average of 443 milliliters, about six percent less. For an alleged violation of the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act, the plaintiff seeks class certification, injunctive relief, an accounting, restitution, damages and attorney’s fees. Issue 629
A consumer has filed a putative class action against Eight O’Clock Coffee, a subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages, alleging the company sells varieties of coffee in identical bags but fills them to different levels, amounting to impermissible slack-fill. Sorgenti v. Eight O’Clock Coffee Co., No. 16-6295 (S.D.N.Y., filed August 9, 2016). The complaint compares Eight O’Clock’s “iconic red flexible metallic bag” filled with 12 ounces of its basic coffee product to the “same sized bags” of its Explorations line—including 100% Colombian Peaks, Central Highlands and African Plains varieties—which contain 11 ounces of product. In addition, other product lines contain 11.5 ounces of product but are sold in the same red packaging, the plaintiff alleges. “As a consequence, consumers are being misled into believing that they are buying a larger volume of Eight O’Clock Coffee’s specialty coffee products than is actually contained in the bag,” the complaint asserts. “And more significantly,…
A consumer has filed a proposed class action against Caribou Coffee Co. Inc. arguing the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending her “numerous unsolicited SMS text messages.” Farnham v. Caribou Coffee Co. Inc., No. 16-0295 (W.D. Wis., filed May 5, 2016). The plaintiff asserts that Caribou sent her 50 text-message advertisements from March to May 2016 without her consent. For allegations of negligent and willful violations of TCPA, the plaintiff seeks statutory damages of $500 per negligent violation and $1,500 per willful violation as well as an injunction and class certification. Issue 604
A putative class action against Melitta USA Inc. alleges the company’s coffee product packaging fails to distinguish between “natural and/or artificial flavor” per federal regulations. Decerbo v. Melitta USA Inc., No. 16-0850 (M.D. Fla., filed April 11, 2016). The plaintiff argues that under U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules, food manufacturers must “accurately identify or describe, in as simple and direct terms as possible, the basic nature of the food and its characterizing properties or ingredients,” including whether a characterizing flavor is natural or artificial. However, “‘Hazelnut Crème’ is not flavored with hazelnuts, there is no vanilla in ‘French Vanilla,’ and ‘Pumpkin Spice’ flavor contains neither nutmeg nor cinnamon, or pumpkin or any customary pumpkin spice either, as these Products’ labels would explicitly lead a consumer to conclude,” the complaint argues. The plaintiff further notes that other coffee-product manufacturers “have responsibly decided to correctly label their products,” purportedly giving the…
A California federal court has dismissed a proposed class action against Nestlé USA, Inc. alleging that its Coffee-Mate creamer products are mislabeled because they include partially hydrogenated oil (PHO), which contains trans fat, despite listing “0g Trans Fat” on its labels. Backus v. Nestlé USA, Inc., No. 15-1963 (N.D. Cal., order entered March 8, 2016). The court first agreed with Nestlé’s argument that the plaintiff’s three use claims—those arguing that the company’s use of PHO makes it liable for damages to consumers—were preempted by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) compliance schedule for removing trans fat from food by June 18, 2018. The court then turned to the labeling claims, which Nestlé also argued were preempted by the FDCA, as amended by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which established that a company must list the trans fat content of…
Citing environmental concerns, the German city of Hamburg has reportedly banned the use of coffee pods in government buildings. Hamburg’s Guide to Green Procurement reportedly states that coffee pods cause “unnecessary resource consumption and waste generation, and often contain polluting aluminum.” “It’s 6 grams of coffee in 3 grams of packaging,” a Hamburg Department of the Environment and Energy official said. “We in Hamburg thought that these shouldn’t be bought with taxpayers’ money.” See VICE.com, February 24, 2016; The Telegraph, February 25, 2016. Issue 595
Grumpy Cat Ltd., owner of the Grumpy Cat trademark, has filed a copyright infringement suit against Grenade Beverage LLC alleging the company failed to pay for the sales of authorized merchandise and sold additional unauthorized branded products. Grumpy Cat Ltd. v. Grenade Beverage LLC, No. 15-2063 (C.D. Cal., filed December 11, 2015). "Ironically," the complaint states, "while the world-famous feline Grumpy Cat and her valuable brand are most often invoked in a tongue-and-cheek fashion, Defendants' despicable misconduct here has actually given Grumpy Cat and her owners something to be grumpy about." Grumpy Cat agreed to license its trademark to Grenade for use in relation to "a line of Grumpy Cat-branded coffee products," which the complaint asserts was mutually understood to mean a line of iced-coffee beverages called the "Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino." Grumpy Cat alleges that it later learned Grenade also planned to produce a line of roasted coffee grounds products associated…
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a case alleging that Kraft spammed an Internet service provider (ISP) with advertisements for its Gevalia® coffee products. Beyond Systems, Inc. v. Kraft Foods, Inc., No. 13-2137 (4th Cir., order entered February 4, 2015). Beyond Systems sued Kraft alleging violations of Maryland’s and California’s anti-spam statutes, but the circuit court agreed with the district court’s determination that Beyond Systems “invited its own purported injury and thus could not recover for it.” Beyond Systems is a Maryland ISP with servers housed at the residence of the owner’s parents, and the owner’s brother owns Hypertouch, Inc., a similar “nominal” ISP with servers in California. Both ISPs host websites with hidden email addresses that only “spam crawlers” can find, and Beyond Systems uses the email addresses as “spam traps”; the court notes that “spam-trap-based litigation has accounted for 90% of…
A district court erred in denying class certification and granting summary judgment to Sturm Foods and its parent company Treehouse Foods in a putative class action accusing the coffee manufacturer of misleading consumers to believe its Keurig-compatible coffee pods contained high-quality coffee rather than low-quality instant coffee, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has decided. Suchanek v. Sturm Foods, Inc., No. 13-3843 (7th Cir., order entered August 22, 2014). The court found that the district court’s reasoning for denying class certification would make consumer class actions nearly impossible. Combined from four separate consumer protection lawsuits, the case centers on Sturm’s Grove Square Coffee (GSC) pods. The Keurig K-Cup typically contains ground coffee beans and a filter system, but the filter technology was protected by a patent until 2012. In 2010, Sturm began manufacturing pods that could be used in Keurig brewers, but to avoid infringing the patent, the company apparently…
