AriZona Tea Class Action Says Sugar, Calorie Content is Misleading

A class action lawsuit says that AriZona’s Sweet Tea serving size, sugar content, and calorie count is misleading, displaying sugar content for serving sizes that are roughly half of what most consumers drink in one sitting.

Plaintiff Lindsey Neville alleges that she purchased several AriZona tea products from retail stores in Washington state, and that she believed the bottles contained only 23 grams of sugar and 90 calories.

The AriZona iced tea class action lawsuit says that she later discovered the bottles contained much higher calorie and sugar amounts.

According to Neville, the bottles list calorie and sugar amounts for an eight-ounce serving, but the bottles contain 16-ounces of tea.

The AriZona class action lawsuit claims that most consumers drink the entire bottle of tea in one serving, so listing the serving size, as well as the sugar and calorie content, as one half of the bottle size is misleading.

Neville says that reasonable consumers would be misled by the product’s labeling, and seeks damages on behalf of herself and consumers who were similarly misled.

The AriZona tea class action lawsuit claims that the plaintiff relied on AriZona’s listed nutrition information to make her purchasing decision, and bought the product specifically because it was advertised to contain not a lot of sugar.

She alleges that many consumers are in the same situation and relied on the product’s labeling to make their purchasing decision.

The plaintiff claims that she was financially injured by the AriZona tea maker because had she known that the product contained much more sugar than she was led to believe, she would not have purchased the product at all or would not have paid as much for it as she did.

According to the AriZona Sweet Tea labeling class action lawsuit, consumers normally drink the entire bottle of AriZona Sweet Tea in one sitting, therefore the true serving size of the product is what most consumers consume in one sitting.

To support this claim, the AriZona sugar content class action lawsuit cites the serving sizes and calorie/sugar content listed on competing products. Allegedly, Vitaminwater’s Lemon Ice Tea comes in a 20 fluid ounce bottle, and lists a serving size of 20 ounces, 120 calories per serving, and 31 grams of sugar per serving.

The AriZona Sweet Tea bottle size class action lawsuit further supports the claim that consumers would assume that one serving size of a beverage is equivalent to the size of the bottle by claiming that the average bottle size of beverages sold in stores is 16 ounces.

Neville argues that Arizona Beverages USA LLC engages in unfair competition by going against the industry standard  that is “based upon the size of a can or bottle that a consumer would usually drink in one sitting.” 

The AriZona tea class action lawsuit claims that the company is intentionally creating consumer confusion by using serving size that is much smaller than what the bottle contains, though the company knows consumers may be likely to assume that a serving size is equivalent to a bottle size.

Neville is represented by Michael R. Reese and George V. Granade of Reese LLP.

The AriZona Sweet Tea Labeling Class Action Lawsuit is Lindsey Neville v. Arizona Beverages USA LLC, et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-05040-SJF-AYS, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

UPDATE: On October 3, 2018, AriZona was hit with a with a class action lawsuit alleging that the bottled tea is falsely advertised as containing no preservatives.