SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A class action lawsuit is going after Nestle’s use of transfat in its products and its allegedly deceptive advertising campaigns that have promoted its creamers as being healthy.
According to a lawsuit filed on April 30 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Troy Backus is bringing a class action against Nestle USA Inc.
The lawsuit centers around the defendant’s use of transfat creamers that contain partially hydrogenated oil (PHO). This is used in several varieties of the defendant’s Coffee-Mate creamer products, the suit says.
Phillip Burton Federal Building & United States Courthouse
The lawsuit states that the Food and Drug Administration came to a tentative determination in 2014 that PHO is “unfit for use in food.”
In fact, the lawsuit continues, Nestle falsely markets its creamers as being healthy and having no transfat, while they allegedly are very unhealthy, containing dangerous levels of a substance strongly linked to numerous health maladies, like brain damage, various cancers, Type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Backus used these creamers regularly during the period encapsulated by this class action lawsuit, as did the “hundreds of thousands” of other members of this class, the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs, citing violations of two state business and profession codes, and breach of express and implied warranties, seek a court order to become, through counsel, the class’ representation; for the defendant to pay the costs of that representation; unspecified restitution for the class; for the defendant to be relieved of any benefits it’s received from allegedly falsely advertising its creamers as healthy; keep the defendant from using deceptive practices when marketing transfat creamers; force the defendant to engage the public with a corrective ad campaign; and make the defendant pay pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs and attorneys’ fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by Gregory S. Weston and Paul K. Joseph of the Weston Firm in San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case no. 3:15-cv-01963
