Consumer Class Action Lawsuit Argues Crystal Light 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.

A class action lawsuit argues that Crystal Light’s advertising false and misleading to consumers because the beverage does not contain fruit juice as the label suggests, and instead contains water and malic acid.

Plaintiff William Albion has filed a class action lawsuit against the product’s maker, the Kraft Heinz Company, claiming that the company knowingly misrepresented Crystal Light to its consumers. He says that he and many other consumers purchased Crystal Light largely because they were advertised as natural and good for health, but he discovered that these claims are not true and the products are made with artificial flavors.

William alleges that he has purchased Crystal Light products periodically since 2011. He says that his most recent purchase of the products was in August 2018 and a Walmart in Indio, Calif.

William says in his class action lawsuit that in September of this year, he learned that Crystal Light’s “characterizing flavors were deceptively created or reinforced using artificial flavoring.” William argues that this information is not included in the product’s advertising or front labeling.

William claims that he and other consumers rely on the Kraft Heinz Company’s labeling to determine the content of the product, and, as normal consumers, are not “required to subject consumer food products to laboratory analysis, to scrutinize the back of the label to discover that a product’s front label is false and misleading.”

The Crystal Light labeling class action lawsuit argues that William and other consumers were financially injured because they did not receive the benefit of their purchase. Allegedly, William and other consumers assumed they were purchasing a healthy product free from artificial flavoring, when they in fact, were not.

The Crystal Light labeling class action lawsuit goes on to allege that the manufacturer violates both state and federal law by advertising the products as containing only natural ingredients and containing fruit.

William cites a number of products that he claims are mislabeled. He says that one product’s front label states that the product contains “natural flavor and other natural flavor,” which is not the case. He says that the company also has a line of Crystal Light “Pure” products, that it advertises as being “sweetened naturally,” despite containing refined sugar. Albion says that “the amount of refined sugar in [the “Pure” products] depletes the body of antioxidants and blocks vitamin and mineral absorption and healthful benefits.”

The Crystal Light label class action lawsuit goes on to argue that the amount of sugar in the products would make it unappealing to consumers seeking health-conscious products, and that those consumers are the ones that the Kraft Heinz Company targets with its advertising scheme. He says that sugar interferes with the body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients, and can raise a person’s blood sugar and can hurt their metabolism.

William Albion is represented by Ronald A. Marron and Michael T. Houchin of the Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron and Scott J. Ferrell of the Pacific Trial Attorneys.

The Crystal Light Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is William Albion v. The Kraft Heinz Company, Case No. 5:18-cv-02101, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.