Posted by: Anna Price
Here at In Custodia Legis, we love writing about legal stories involving food. When I read about a recent federal appellate court opinion addressing the term “sugar free,” I knew we had to cover it.
On July 27, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in the case Franco v. Chobani, LLC (opinion), holding that consumers could pursue a lawsuit against Chobani for what they alleged were deceptive practices in labeling and marketing some of their yogurt products. The underlying lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Illinois by individuals who purchased Chobani’s sugar-free yogurt and sought to form a class of consumers who wanted “to hold the company liable for deceptive marketing under dozens of state consumer protection laws.” (Opinion at 1-2.) They alleged in their initial filing with the district court (complaint) that despite the manufacturer’s claims that the yogurt was sugar-free, each serving contains four grams of allulose, a naturally occurring sweetener. (Complaint at 1-2.) The lower court dismissed the case, and the plaintiffs appealed to the Seventh Circuit.
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