Nutella Class Action Lawsuit Says Snack Packages are 50% Empty

A class action lawsuit claiming that Ferrero USA’s “Nutella & Go” product contains 50 percent empty space has been removed to California federal court. 

Plaintiff Abraham Drucker says he purchased a “Nutella & Go” product for his kids at a Safeway in San Francisco on or around September 2015. 

According to the Nutella class action lawsuit, the package looks like one side is filled with small breadsticks or pretzels and the other side is filled with Nutella hazelnut spread in which a user can dip.

However, Drucker says the product contains far less Nutella than the package suggests.

The Nutella class action argues that Ferrero USA intentionally misleads customers into thinking that there is more product in the package than there actually is.

According to Drucker, the package suggests that the entire right side is filled from top to bottom with Nutella, but in reality, the bottom right side is just empty space, and the Nutella is only filled halfway down the container.

The Nutella & Go class action lawsuit states that customers have no way of knowing that the container is not full of Nutella on the right side because the package is opaque.

Additionally, the plaintiff says that when the Nutella & Go product is sold in a pack of multiples, as it often is, there is an additional layer of packaging, so customers are further prevented from determining how much Nutella is in the product.

The Nutella class action lawsuit alleges that had Drucker known that there was 50 percent less Nutella in the product than there really was, he would not have purchased the product at all or would not have paid as much as he did for it.

The plaintiff claims that because of this, he was financially injured by Ferrero.

Further, Drucker states that many other customers who purchased Nutella & Go were similarly deceived by the product’s packaging. He seeks damages on behalf of himself and all other similarly affected customers.

The Nutella & Go packaging class action lawsuit argues that Ferrero’s inclusion of so much empty space in the package violates federal regulation.

The government allows some empty space in packaging, known as “slack-fill” as long as the space serves a purpose. Some of the federally approved purposes are manufacturing requirements of the machine that makes the product, and using the empty space to protect or buffer the product from damage.

The Nutella & Go class action lawsuit states that federal regulation prohibits the inclusion of empty space that doesn’t serve a purpose, known as “nonfunctional slack-fill.”

Drucker argues that the empty space in the Nutella & Go package serves no useful purpose other than to mislead customers, so it should be considered “nonfunctional slack fill” and should be regarded as a violation of legal regulations.

Drucker is represented by Rachele R. Byrd, Brittany N. Dejong, and Matthew M. Guiney of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.

The Nutella & Go Slack-Fill Packaging Class Action Lawsuit is Abraham Drucker v. Ferrero USA Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-00622, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.