LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A California man and New York woman are suing a health foods company over claims it misrepresented that eating its nut-based candy bars would prevent weight gain.
Steven Bailey and Loree Moran, individually and for all others similarly situated, filed a class-action lawsuit Feb. 1 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against KIND LLC, alleging breach of express warranty, violations of consumer protection laws in California and New York, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and unjust enrichment.
The suit states that from October 2012 to May 2014, KIND represented that a "study from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center indicates that eating two KIND bars a day helps prevent weight gain."
The suit states that representation is false and misleading, and that the study, which was financed in 2008 by KIND's former affiliate, PeaceWorks Holdings, found that eating two KIND bars a day made no difference in weight gain.
Then, in late 2013, KIND allegedly tried to engineer a second Yale-Griffin study in search of more favorable results. The second study's results were the same as the first, but KIND allegedly continued to represent that eating KIND bars would prevent weight gain.
The suit states the plaintiffs and others in the class purchased KIND bars for a premium based on its misrepresentations, which were allegedly printed on the back of the bars' wrappers until May 2014.
The plaintiffs and others in the class seek compensatory and punitive damages, interests, restitution and other equitable monetary relief, injunctive relief, attorney fees and costs of the suit. They are represented by attorneys L. Timothy Fisher, Julia A. Luster and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher in Walnut Creek, California and New York City.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Case number 8:16-cv-00168-JLS-DFM