WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Simply Orange Juice Company regarding the possible presence of chemicals known as PFAS.
New York judge Nelson Roman on June 10 tossed the case of Joseph Lurenz, who sued the companies in 2022. He alleged PFAS are present in Simply Tropical juice drinks but not that he was harmed by them.
An October motion to dismiss called the lawsuit a "part of a growing trend of no-injury, no-deception class action suits" over trace amounts of PFAS, chemicals used in firefighting foam and consumer products found in the environment.
PFAS are dubbed "forever chemicals" because they persist in groundwater and human tissue for years. The federal government has set a maximum contaminant level for PFAS, even as groups call the move premature. Much of the research regarding their effect on the human body is disputed.
Lurenz said he was duped because Simply Tropical is marketed as "all natural," and by using "Simply" to name the drink, customers thought it was healthy. These cases allege consumers paid a price premium for a product that did not live up to expectations.
Judge Roman found Lurenz failed to show that harm.
"Plaintiff's contention that the product he purchased contained PFAS is based solely on a single independent test he had commissioned," Roman wrote.
"But the findings from that test... do not plausibly allege any injury with respect to the products Plaintiff himself purchased."
What Lurenz bought wasn't tested, Roman noted. The lawsuit joins others over juices, personal care products and makeup that have failed.
"The only way in which Plaintiff attempts to link the testing to the product he purchased is by asserting that both the testing and his purchase occurred in July 2022," Roman wrote.
"But the temporal proximity between the testing and the purchase cannot alone support the inference that the presence of PFAS in a single sample of a product means PFAS were present in the product Plaintiff actually purchasd, let alone the 'tens of thousands' of products sold during the class period."
Representing the plaintiff are The Sultzer Law Group and Milberg, Coleman, Bryson, Phillips.