Rust-Oleum Class Action Says Painter’s Touch Spray Paint is Falsely Advertised

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.

Two women say Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2X Spray Paint deceives consumers with false promises of double coverage.

Plaintiffs Anna Leggett and Kristi Warriner say defendant Rust-Oleum Corporation claims Painter’s Touch will provide “twice the coverage in a single pass,” getting projects done “in half the time at half the cost of competitive brands.”

Based on those representations of better coverage, plaintiffs say, Rust-Oleum charges a premium price for Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch paint.

But the product fails to live up to those representations, according to this Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch class action lawsuit. Both plaintiffs say they never would have purchased the Rust-Oleum spray paint had they known it doesn’t actually provide double coverage.

“Defendant’s advertisements, including the Product’s name, label, packaging, website, and brochures are false, misleading, and likely to deceive the reasonable consumer,” the plaintiffs say. “Rather than providing ‘twice the coverage’ as its competitors, the Product performs below its express representations and fails to fulfill Rust-Oleum’s affirmative promises.”

In their Rust-Oleum class action lawsuit, Leggett and Warriner include images of product labels and online advertisements from Rust-Oleum. The images show specific representations of “twice the coverage” and the words “Ultra Cover 2X” in the products’ names.

The plaintiffs say they did not get the higher-quality product for which they paid a premium price. They further allege that because Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch failed to provide the advertised coverage, they had to buy more spray paint to finish their projects, resulting in a loss of both time and money.

Plaintiffs cite a 2016 recommendation by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, recommending that Rust-Oleum cease making claims that Painter’s Touch provides twice as much coverage as competitor spray paints.

The Council conducted product testing to see how the performance of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch compared to that of its competitors. According to the plaintiffs, the Council concluded that the test results did not support Rust-Oleum’s specific promises of double coverage.

The Council noted that Rust-Oleum’s representations could have resulted from bias inherent in the company’s own in-house testing – bias that purportedly could have been avoided by using testing from an independent third party.

Leggett and Warriner propose to represent a nationwide plaintiff Class that would cover all persons in the U.S. who purchased Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2X Spray Paint during the applicable statute of limitations period. They also propose two subclasses representing Class Members from their respective home states of Oregon and Wisconsin.

They seek a court injunction that would bar Rust-Oleum from continuing the alleged false advertising of its Painter’s Touch Spray Paint and require the company to implement a corrective advertising campaign. They also seek an award of damages, restitution, disgorgement of related revenues, court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Leggett and Warriner are represented by attorneys Richard R. Gordon of Gordon Law Offices Ltd., Todd S. Garber and D. Greg Blankinship of Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP, and Samuel J. Strauss of Turke & Strauss LLP.

The Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2X Spray Paint Class Action Lawsuit is Anna Leggett and Kristi Warriner v. Rust-Oleum Corp., Case No. 1:17-cv-01449, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.