In a breach of contract class-action complaint filed on Tuesday in the Northern District of Illinois, the plaintiffs claimed that Kraft Heinz Foods Company, producers of Maxwell House coffee products, participated in deceptive practices by advertising that their coffee products will produce a specific amount of servings which is well over the actual servings produced.
The plaintiffs, Gennaro Rocco and Loretta Schweinsburg represented by Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLC, claimed they purchased products that advertised that it would make “up to 240 6 FL OZ cups,” which according to the instructions on the packaging would consist of 1 tablespoon of coffee and 6 fl oz of water. However, the container purchased contained about 170 tablespoons of coffee rather than the advertised 240.
“Kraft Heinz engages in widespread false and deceptive advertising on its Maxwell House Coffee Products,” the complaint stated. “In a practice that offends reasonable consumer expectations, Defendant employs a classic bait-and-switch scheme that causes unsuspecting consumers to spend more money for less than the advertised amount of coffee they believe they are purchasing.”
The plaintiffs claimed similar deceptive advertising was found on the defendant’s other coffee products. Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLC conducted a laboratory test on the products and found that the coffee products were “significantly underfilled.” The plaintiffs alleged that they and others, who purchased Kraft Heinz Foods’ coffee products, would not have paid as much for the products if they were aware of the actual servings included.
Last week an additional complaint was filed against the Kraft Heinz Foods Company with similar allegations in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Randall Sulzer, represented by Carlson Lynch LLP, called the advertising a “classic and unlawful bait-and-switch scheme that causes unsuspecting consumers to spend more money for less than the advertised amount of coffee they believe they are purchasing.”
The Kroger Company also received a class-action complaint last Tuesday claiming their coffee did not produce the advertised number of servings. A lawsuit was filed against the Folger Coffee Company in May with similar allegations. Ramon Ibarra claimed when directions were followed the canister contained only 156 servings of coffee instead of the 210 cups claimed on the canister advertisement.
