By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – A federal choose in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the previous Nestle (NS:) Waters (NYSE:) North America for defrauding customers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as “spring water.”
Whereas dismissing some claims within the proposed class motion, U.S. District Decide Jeffrey Alker Meyer of New Haven known as it an open query whether or not Poland Spring qualifies as spring water beneath the legal guidelines of Connecticut, Maine , Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Poland Spring is now owned by Primo Manufacturers, following a number of company transactions. The Tampa, Fla.-based firm had no quick remark Tuesday.
Shoppers sued Nestlé Waters, then owned by Nestlé, in 2017, claiming the corporate deceived them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels declaring it to be a “pure spring water » or “100% pure spring water”.
The plaintiffs mentioned that “not a drop” of the billion gallons offered annually in the USA got here from a pure supply, and that the Polish supply in Maine “dried up” twenty years earlier than Nestlé purchased the model in 1992.
In searching for dismissal, Nestlé Waters mentioned geologists and officers in all eight states agreed that Poland Spring complied with a U.S. Meals and Drug Administration rule defining spring water, and that every state had approved its sale beneath the title “spring water”.
However the choose cited a former Syracuse College earth sciences professor employed by the plaintiffs, who mentioned Nestlé Waters appeared to make use of synthetic springs and extract water from ponds and different floor waters at place of “actual” spring water.
Meyer agreed with Nestlé Waters that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to demand new labels as a result of they now knew the so-called “fact” about Poland Spring and will buy different water manufacturers.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Nestlé Waters was Nestlé’s North American bottled water enterprise. Nestlé offered it in 2021 to 2 non-public fairness corporations, who renamed it BlueTriton. That firm merged in November with the previous Primo Water (NYSE:) to type Primo Manufacturers.
The case is Patane v. Nestlé Waters North America Inc., United States District Court docket, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381.
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