Rockstar Class Action Says Canned Coffee Drinks are Underfilled

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.

An Oregon man says Rockstar is short-changing consumers by underfilling cans of its coffee energy drinks.

Plaintiff J. Podawiltz says he bought a can of Rockstar brand coffee drink from a Portland convenience store in January 2017, only to find it didn’t contain as much product as the label promised.

He claims defendant Rockstar Inc. is purposely underfilling cans of its products to give itself an unfair advantage over competitors at consumers’ expense.

According to this Rockstar class action lawsuit, a food laboratory in Portland recently confirmed that cans of Rockstar contained about six percent less product than the amount advertised on the label. Cans labeled as containing 473 mL of product actually contained about 30 mL less than that, the lab said.

Rockstar coffee products purchased from several different locations in Oregon over the course of several months were all similarly underfilled, the lab reported. Similar canned products from competitors Starbucks and Monster did not have the same problem, however; those cans contained 100 percent of the product advertised on their cans, according to the class action lawsuit.

The missing product can add up in terms of value lost to consumers, Podawiltz claims. He cites research showing that the U.S. market for canned and bottled ready-to-drink coffee has more than quadrupled over the past 15 years, exceeding $2 billion in 2015.

“Rockstar Inc. knows that misleading the American public about the amount of beverage in its cans may be hardly noticeable to most average consumers,” Podawiltz says. “But on a large scale, Rockstar Inc.’s unfair business practice gives it an advantage over its competitors that choose to play by the rules.”

Each consumer who purchased an underfilled Rockstar coffee and energy drink suffered an ascertainable economic loss, measurable by the value of the amount of product missing from the can, Podawiltz argues.

Podawiltz raised claims for violation of the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act. He believes Rockstar violates this law by overstating the volume of product in its cans. This alleged mislabeling would deceive a reasonable consumer into thinking the can contains more product than it actually does, he argues.

Podawiltz proposes to represent a statewide plaintiff Class that would include all persons in Oregon who after March 26, 2016 bought a can of Rockstar coffee and energy drink that contained less product than was advertised on the can’s label. He says he plans to amend his Rockstar class action lawsuit to bring claims on a nationwide basis.

He is asking the court to stop Rockstar from selling these allegedly mislabeled products in violation of Oregon law. He also seeks an award of actual, statutory and punitive damages, reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and court costs, and any other relief the court sees fit to grant.

The plaintiff is represented by attorneys Michael Fuller and Rex Daines of Olsen Daines PC, Ben Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos, Robert Le and Kelly Jones.

The Rockstar Underfilled Cans Class Action Lawsuit is Podawiltz v. Rockstar Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-00477, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.