SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A lawsuit claiming V8 is unhealthy because it contains the naturally occurring sugars present in vegetables should be thrown out of court, the drink’s maker is arguing.
Charles Sipos and other attorneys at Perkins Coie on Feb. 17 filed a motion to dismiss on behalf of Campbell Soup Company in an effort to cut off the proposed class action in San Francisco federal court.
At issue is Campbell’s plea to consumers to “Boost Your Morning Nutrition” on certain V8 products. The class action alleges this is a false representation of the juice blends due to their sugar content.
“This theory is implausible in multiple ways. It is contradicted by the labels’ repeated and truthful disclosures about the products’ sugar content,” the motion says. “It is discredited by the placement of the challenged claim on the products’ labels, which show that this ‘Boost Your Morning Nutrition’ claim appears immediately adjacent to a listing of undisputed nutritional facts about the foods.
“And it is wrong as a matter of FDA regulations and nutritional guidance, which encourage consumers to drink juice even if it contains naturally occurring sugar so long as it meets certain nutritional criteria—criteria the V8 Juices all meet and exceed.”
Plaintiffs lawyers are wrongly relying on court decisions involving products with added sugars, Campbell’s says.
“Dismissals of similar complaints by other Northern District judges confirm the Complaint’s incurable defects,” the motion says. “These cases expressly refute the plausibility of Plaintiffs’ theory of deception by explaining that labels that plainly and repeatedly disclose a food’s sugar content—as the V8 Juice labels do—give reasonable consumers all the information they need to decide whether a food is ‘healthy’ enough to incorporate into their diet.
“The only meaningful difference between those cases and this one is that here the foods contain no added sugar whatsoever. So, Plaintiffs’ theory of deception is even weaker than in these prior cases that were nonetheless dismissed.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Paul Joseph of Fitzgerald Joseph in San Diego. He filed the case Dec. 7.