Plaintiff Urges Judge to Keep Twinings Tea Class Action Alive

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Last week, a Twinings tea drinker filed a motion asking a judge not to grant summary judgment in favor of Twinings North America Inc., arguing the tea company’s repeated attempts at summary judgment are a “drain on this Court’s resources” and should be rejected.

Plaintiff Nancy Lanovaz initially filed the Twinings tea class action lawsuit on May 23, 2012, accusing the company of false advertising and of violating U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations with regard to its antioxidant claims. She claims that she became aware of the health benefits of antioxidants and chose to purchase Twinings tea because the labels indicated the tea blends were a “Natural Source of Antioxidants.”

Lanovaz asserts that she paid a premium price for Twinings tea, but says she wouldn’t have purchased it if she’d known that the company misrepresented the antioxidant and health claims on the label.

On Friday, Lanovaz filed a response in opposition to Twinings’ latest motion for summary judgment, which was filed in March. In the motion, Twinings argued that Lanovaz did not provide evidence to suggest that a reasonable consumer would be deceived by the product labels. The company noted that it has removed the antioxidant label from its products and the company’s website.

“All of Defendant’s repetitive arguments should be rejected,” Lanovaz states in her opposition motion. “This Court has previously been presented with many of these same arguments by Twinings. The Court rejected them.”

Lanovaz argues that the court should continue to reject Twinings’ attempts at summary judgment because she has “colorable claims” that have already survived motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment.

“Because these same issues have been considered and rejected previously, Defendant’s renewed motion for summary judgment is a drain on this Court’s resources and should be denied,” Lanovaz claims.

Twinings has fiercely contested the false advertising class action lawsuit but has so far been unsuccessful at putting an end to the litigation. In May 2013, a federal judge denied the tea company’s motion to dismiss or strike the claims that it falsely promoted the antioxidant properties of dozens of tea blends. U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte ruled that Lanovaz could bring claims based on tea blends that she did not purchase as long as they are made from the same plant as products she did purchase.

In January 2014, Judge Whyte again refused to dismiss the Twinings tea class action lawsuit over the tea company’s argument that Lanovaz did not rely on the allegedly misleading statements regarding the teas’ nutrient content and health claims.

The Twinings antioxidant class action lawsuit received Class certification in April 2014, but Judge Whyte determined that the Class could only seek injunctive or declaratory relief but no monetary damages.

Lanovaz is represented by Pierce Gore of Pratt & Associates, J. Price Coleman of Coleman Law Firm and Brian Herrington of Barrett Law Group PA.

The Twinings Tea Antioxidants Class Action Lawsuit is Nancy Lanovaz, et al. v. Twinings North America Inc., Case No. 5:12-cv-02646, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On May 9, 2016, Twinings filed another motion to dismiss the claims.

UPDATE 2: On Sept. 6, 2016, Twinings won a bid for dismissal in a consumer fraud class action lawsuit claiming the company falsely represented the health benefits of more than 50 different blends of its teas.