Judge Dismisses Tetley Tea Class Action Lawsuit

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 California federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit that accused Tetley USA Inc. of deceiving customers about the health benefits of its teas, finding that the plaintiffs did not provide enough detail about their fraud claims in the complaint. The class action lawsuit claimed that Tetley’s website and product labels made false health claims about the antioxidants and nutrients present in its teas.

Daryl De Keczer originally filed the Tetley class action lawsuit in May 2012 and filed an amended complaint in August 2012. She took issue with the alleged mislabeling of Tetley’s “misbranded food products.” According to her class action lawsuit, these “misbranded food products” include but are not limited to Tetley’s Classic Blend Black Tea, Pure Green Tea, British Blend Black Tea, Iced Tea Blend Tea and Iced Tea Mix.

De Keczer claims that she has purchased more than $25 of Tetley’s tea products since 2008. In her class action lawsuit, she argues that Tetley makes misleading health claims about the antioxidants and nutrients contained in the teas. She claims that she relied on these health claims when she decided to buy the products.

In her class action lawsuit, De Keczer accuses Tetley of violating federal and state laws related to food labeling, even after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued similar warnings to other tea makers that claimed their products offered health benefits. She alleges that Tetley violated California’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, the Song-Beverly Act, the Magnuson-Moss Act and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

In dismissing the Tetley tea class action lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila found that “the amended complaint does not provide a clear and unambiguous account of the allegedly fraudulent, deceptive, misrepresentative or otherwise unlawful statements.” He found that De Keczer’s false advertising claims were insufficient to meet the heightened federal pleading standard for fraud.

Judge Davila noted that the teas that De Keczer listed in the class action lawsuit do not correlate exactly with the “misbranded food products” that De Keczer claims to take issue with and would require the court to draw its own conclusions about which specific products are at issue in the class action lawsuit.

“Rather than consisting of finite and particular tea products, ‘Misbranded Food Products’ purports to encapsulate an open0ended class of these products,” Judge Davila said. “Drawing such inferences about the particular misconduct that is alleged to constitute fraud, deception or misrepresentation is something the heightened Rule 9 pleading standard seeks to avoid.”

Judge Davila also dismissed De Keczer’s breach of warranty claims, finding that the food labels identified in the class action lawsuit were not express warranties against a product defect.

Judge Davila has given De Keczer and his attorneys 15 days to amend the class action lawsuit.

De Keczer is represented by Ben F. Pierce Gore of Pratt & Associates and J. Price Coleman of Coleman Law Firm PA.

The Tetley Tea Class Action Lawsuit is Daryl De Keczer v. Tetley USA Inc., Case No. 12-cv-02409, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.