LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Consumers could be misled into believing Target’s White Baking Morsels contain white chocolate because the price tag had the abbreviation “WHT CHOCO,” a California appeals court ruled, reviving a class action a trial judge had dismissed after finding no reasonable consumer could have been deceived.
Digressing into general observations about what consumers know and don’t know – including the observation that many consumers might not even know there were white chips that don’t contain white chocolate – Judge Carol Codrington of California’s Fourth Appellate District concluded that plaintiff David Salazar and his attorneys at Clarkson Law Firm deserved another shot at winning money from Target.
“At a minimum, a reasonable consumer could be confused about whether the morsels are made with white chocolate given the price tag’s description of the morsels as `WHT CHOCO’ and the fact that the product’s label does not clearly state whether they contain white chocolate,” wrote Codrington in a Sept. 19 decision joined by the court’s two other justices. “That is all Salazar had to allege to state a viable claim” under various California consumer protection laws, she said.
Target argued no reasonable consumer could believe White Baking Morsels contained chocolate, since it wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the package. But Salazar’s lawyers submitted a survey they said found 88% of respondents believed White Baking Morsels contained white chocolate.
The appeals court dismissed as distinguishable other California decisions rejecting claims “Classic White Chips” and “Premier White Morsels” contained white chocolate because they didn’t include the word chocolate. Target’s price tag made all the difference here, however. The letters “WHT CHOCO” could lead consumers to conclude the product contained white chocolate. It didn’t help that the package bears “a picture of what appears to be a white-colored chocolate chip,” Justice Codrington added.
Nowhere in her opinion did Justice Codrington discuss the actual definition of white chocolate, which is itself misleading. According to Food and Drug Administration regulations, white chocolate is made of cacao fat, milkfat and sweeteners. Regular chocolate, per FDA regs, contains chocolate liquor.
The appeals court agreed Salazar didn’t have standing to sue over wording on Target’s website because he admitted he hadn’t visited the site. A plaintiff lawyer confirmed that Salazar “didn’t see” the website and “didn’t rely on it.”