Melitta Coffee Mislabeling Class Action Lawsuit Gets a Second Chance

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.

A New Jersey plaintiff is getting a second shot at stating a consumer protection claim over allegedly mislabeled Melitta coffee.

Plaintiff Jill Decerbo filed her second attempt at a Melitta class action lawsuit last week in a Florida federal court. She claims the labels on certain varieties of flavored Melitta coffee fail to disclose that the products contain artificial ingredients, rendering them misbranded under federal and state regulations.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich dismissed Decerbo’s first complaint, finding that she failed to state a claim. Judge Kovachevich was particularly dissatisfied that the Melitta class action lawsuit didn’t include images of the labeling at issue.

In her amended complaint, Decerbo made sure to include large images of the product labels at issue, showing the front of two cans of Melitta coffee. As depicted, the labels do not show any mention of any artificial ingredients.

Decerbo says this alleged failure to disclose the presence of artificial ingredients violates federal and state food labeling regulations – as well as the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, which she argues incorporates those regulations.

Decerbo asked the court this past summer to certify her proposed Class. Class certification would allow her to continue the claim as a class action lawsuit. Decerbo argued that the labeling that deceived her, may have also tricked potentially thousands of Class Members.

Melitta shot back in July, arguing that Decerbo was trying to unite a plaintiff Class based on too many different products in too many different types of packaging. Purported Class Members who bought all those different products would not have the unity of interest required to join them into a certifiable Class, the company argued.

In her new complaint, Decerbo limits her claims to Melitta European Indulgence Hazelnut Creme Ground Coffee and Melitta European Indulgence French Vanilla Ground Coffee.

Decerbo now seeks to represent a New Jersey Class, which would consist of all persons who purchased the contested Melitta coffee in New Jersey for their own use between Mar. 29, 2010 and the date Class notice is disseminated.

She also proposes a multi-state Class consisting of Class Members from other states with consumer protection laws “sufficiently similar to that of New Jersey that it is reasonable to apply New Jersey law to those purchases.”

Decerbo is asking the court to order Melitta to discontinue any “deceptive, unconscionable, fraudulent and unfair” advertising practices and to engage in a corrective advertising campaign.

She also seeks a damage award including statutory and punitive damages  under New Jersey law, orders of restitution and disgorgement, and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and court costs, all with interest.

Decerbo is represented by attorneys Ronald A. Marron, Skye Resendes and William B. Richards Jr. of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron APLC, David Elliot of The Law Office of David Elliot, and Cullin A. O’Brien of Cullin O’Brien Law PA.

The Melitta Coffee False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Jill Decerbo v. Melitta USA Inc., Case No. 8:16-cv-00850, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.