Tag: chocolate
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Consumer Advocate Files Antitrust Complaint in Israel over Chocolate Prices
The consumer group Emun Hazibur has reportedly filed a complaint with Israel’s antitrust authority alleging that The Strauss Group, ranked second among food manufacturers in the country, is exploiting its 63 percent share of the chocolate market by overcharging customers. The group and several others apparently compared the company’s prices to leading brands in other…
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Biscotti Maker Targeted in “All Natural” Lawsuit
California residents have filed a putative class action against Nonni’s Foods, LLC, alleging that the company falsely represents its “All Natural” biscotti products by failing to disclose that ingredients, such as cocoa processed with alkali, glycerin, monocalcium phosphate, and diglycerides, are synthetic. Larsen v. Nonni’s Foods, LLC, No. 11-4758 (N.D. Cal., filed September 23, 2011).…
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Foreign Student Guestworkers Complain of Working Conditions and Pay at Hershey Plant
In an August 17, 2011, letter to the U.S. Department of State filed on behalf of more than 400 foreign guest workers recruited by the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA) to work for the Hershey Chocolate Co., the National Guestworker Alliance seeks the revocation of CETUSA’s sponsor status as a provider of J-1 visas,…
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Recently Filed Lawsuits: Death in a Chocolate Factory, Demand for Documents in NYC “Man Drinking Fat” Ads, New Claims That Wesson Oil Is Not “100% Natural”
The parents of a 29-year-old who died after he fell into a vat of chocolate have filed a wrongful death action in a Pennsylvania state court against the company that owned the plant where he worked and a number of other defendants involved in manufacturing the allegedly faulty equipment that purportedly led to the accident.…
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Class Action Challenging “All Natural” Designation for Ice Cream Transferred
Relying on the first-to-file rule, a federal court in New Jersey has transferred a putative class action alleging false advertising for a Breyers ice cream product to a federal court in California that is considering similar litigation. Catanese v. Unilever d/b/a/ Breyers, No. 10-5755 (D.N.J., decided March 28, 2011). The plaintiffs in a number of cases…
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EU Confectioners Not Entitled to Trademark for Chocolate Rabbits and Reindeer
Having considered the matter for some six years, the General Court of the European Union (EU) has determined that chocolate makers Lindt & Sprüngli AG and August Storck AG cannot register certain three-dimensional shapes, their colored wrappings and ribbons as European Community trademarks. According to the court, chocolate rabbits, reindeer, bells, and mice “cannot be…
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Candy Makers Spar over Packaging
Hershey Company has reportedly sued Mars for trademark infringement in a Pennsylvania federal court, alleging that colors used in the packaging for Mars’s Dove peanut-butter milk-chocolate Promises® candy is too similar to what Hershey uses for its Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups®. Mars apparently filed a preemptive suit just days earlier in a Virginia federal court,…
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Putative Class Alleges Breyers “All Natural” Ice Cream Contains Non-Natural Cocoa
A California resident has filed a putative class action against the company that owns the Breyers ice cream brand, alleging violations of consumer protection laws because its 23 chocolate-flavored products are labeled “All Natural” but also contain cocoa processed with alkali. Denmon-Clark v. Conopco, Inc., No. 10-7898 (C.D. Cal., filed October 20, 2010). According to the complaint,…