StarKist ‘Heart­-Healthy’ Tuna Class Action Lawsuit Trimmed

Earlier this week, a New York federal judge determined that StarKist must face a tuna class action lawsuit taking issue with the company’s “heart healthy” claims, but has agreed to throw out some of the allegations.

According to U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe, plaintiff Abraham Warner sufficiently built a case that StarKist had used false advertising on their tuna labels by failing to disclose that the “Heart-Check Mark” on the can was a paid endorsement by the American Heart Association.

However, Judge Sharp determined that because Warner did say that he was unlikely to purchase the tuna in the future and could not show that he would be injured in the future if the company continued its current conduct, he could not sue for injunctive relief.

According to Judge Sharp, “Warner is now aware that StarKist pays the AHA to place the Heart-Check Mark on its labels. As such, there is no ‘real and immediate’ treat of future injury because Warner’s own allegations indicate that he will not purchase or pay as much for the product going forward.”

The judge said this determination was a “close call” that could be revised at the summary judgement stage.

Judge Sharp did not take into account a piece of evidence that was disputed by StarKist Co. — Warner’s use of the AHA’s website to build his claim that the Heart-Check Mark is a paid endorsement.

StarKist argued that Warner improperly cited excerpts from the website to build his case, when in reality, paying the AHA ensures that a product will be reviewed by the American Heart Association, but does not guarantee that the product will receive the Heart-Check Mark.

Judge Sharp stated that he would not consider this disputed evidence in making the call to allow the tuna advertising class action lawsuit to move forward, stating that he felt that Warner and StarKist were arguing over the relevancy and accuracy of including the website in the litigation.

Warner filed his StarKist tuna class action lawsuit in April 2018. He claimed that StarKist falsely advertised its products by displaying the “Heart-Check Mark” on tuna labels along with the text “American Heart Association – Certified – Meets Criteria for Heart-Healthy Foods.”

Allegedly, this “Heart-Check Mark” was a paid endorsement, and in accordance with state and federal law, StarKist should have disclosed that the endorsement from the third party was paid for.

Warner argued that StarKist played into consumers’ preference for products with third party endorsements by including the mark and not notifying consumers that it was paid for.

Allegedly, consumers place more stock in independent third party endorsements and take it to be an assurance of quality of the product.

Warner is represented by Todd S. Garber, D. Greg Blankinship, and Bradley F. Silverman of Finkelstein Blankinship Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP.

The StarKist AHA Heart-Check Mark False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Warner v. StarKist Co., Case No. 1:18-cv-00406, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.