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By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -A federal choose in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the previous Nestle (NS:NEST) Waters (NYSE:WAT) North America of defrauding customers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as “spring water.”
Whereas rejecting some claims within the proposed class motion, U.S. District Choose Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven referred to as it an open query whether or not Poland Spring certified as spring water below the legal guidelines of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Poland Spring is now owned by Tampa, Florida-based Primo Manufacturers, following a number of company transactions.
Shoppers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle, in 2017, saying it deceived them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels declaring it to be “Pure Spring Water” or “100% Pure Spring Water.”
The plaintiffs stated “not one drop” of the 1 billion gallons offered yearly in america got here from a pure spring, and that the precise Poland Spring in Maine “ran dry” twenty years earlier than Nestle purchased the model in 1992.
In in search of a dismissal, Nestle Waters stated geologists and officers within the eight states agreed that Poland Spring complied with a U.S. Meals and Drug Administration rule defining spring water, and every state licensed its sale as “spring water.”
However the choose cited a former Syracuse College earth sciences professor employed by the plaintiffs, who stated Nestle Waters appeared to make use of man-made springs and extracted pond water and different floor water as an alternative of “true” spring water.
Meyer agreed with Nestle Waters that the plaintiffs lacked standing to demand new labels, as a result of they now knew the alleged “reality” about Poland Spring and will purchase different manufacturers of water.
In a press release, Primo stated it was assured the Maine springs that supply Poland Spring adjust to the FDA rule.
“Poland Spring model bottled water is 100% spring water,” the corporate stated. “We stay assured in our place and stay up for efficiently defending in opposition to the remaining claims.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Nestle Waters had been Nestle’s North American bottled water enterprise. Nestle offered it in 2021 to 2 personal fairness companies, which renamed it BlueTriton. That firm merged in November with the previous Primo Water (NYSE:PRMB) to type Primo Manufacturers.
The case is Patane v. Nestle Waters North America Inc, U.S. District Courtroom, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381.
