A Hillsborough County resident who purchased a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins for $4.49 is now suing the manufacturer, Hershey Co., saying the candies in the bag lacked the artistic facial designs depicted on the packaging.
Cynthia Kelly is listed as the plaintiff in the federal class-action complaint, which was filed Dec. 28 in the Middle District of Florida. Kelly said she was induced into buying the candies based on false, misleading and deceptive label representations.
“Plaintiff would not have purchased the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins product if she knew that it did not have the detailed carvings of the mouth and/or eyes as pictured on the product label,” the lawsuit states.
Numerous Reese’s peanut butter candies have similar “deceptive advertising” problems, according to the complaint, including Reese’s White Pumpkins, Reese’s Peanut Butter Ghost, Reese’s White Ghost, Reese’s Peanut Butter Bats and Reese’s Peanut Butter footBalls.
“This is a class action against Hershey for falsely representing several Reese’s peanut butter products as containing explicit carved-out artistic designs when there are no such carvings in the actual products,” the lawsuit says.
The packaging for Reese’s White Ghost candies, for example, shows carved-out eyes on the label, but the actual product is faceless, according to the complaint. Similarly, the label of Reese’s Peanut Butter footBalls shows candies with laces on the product, but in reality they are egg-shaped and feature-less, according to the complaint.
Hershey declined a request for comment.
Attorney Anthony Russo, who filed the lawsuit, said the candy case might seem small in value, but actually it’s a symptom of a bigger problem. Russo has also filed lawsuits against fast-food companies such as Wendy’s and McDonald’s for allegedly not advertising products properly.
“Today it’s a piece of candy or a fast-food item,” he told the Florida Record. “Tomorrow it’s an automobile. The next day it could be your home.”
The goal of the legal action, according to Russo, is to make sure regulations and guidelines are in place to protect consumers and ensure they will have trust in corporations.
The number of members in the potential class action – those dissatisfied candy purchasers who feel they were deceived by the product labels – is uncertain.
“That’s usually the question you don’t know until you get into (the discovery phase,)” he said. “It could be hundreds, it could be thousands, it could be tens of thousands.”
The lawsuit contains several comments about Hershey Halloween candies from YouTube reviewers.
“Reese’s, what are you doing?” one reviewer said. “Look at the picture on the packet. It’s like a pumpkin with faces and a little mouth – then you open up the packet and you are presented with that monstrosity.”
“Awe man, I thought it would have a face on it,” another reviewer is quoted in the lawsuit as saying. “It’s just a chocolate blob. That’s a little disappointing.”
The lawsuit seeks to have Hershey correct its “deceptive” conduct, gain compensatory damages for eventual class members and award attorneys’ fees, expenses and other costs incurred in the legal action.
“Hershey’s labels for the products are materially misleading, and numerous consumers have been tricked and misled by the pictures on the products’ packing,” the complaint says.