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Hain Celestial Group Inc. will have to face a consumer class action lawsuit accusing the company of falsely labeling its Celestial Seasonings tea products as “all natural” even though they allegedly contain trace amounts of pesticides, according to a ruling issued Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford.
The Celestial Seasonings tea products named in the class action lawsuit are Sleepytime Herbal Tea, Sleepytime Kids Goodnight Grape, Green Tea Peach Blossom, Green Tea Raspberry Gardens, Authentic Green Tea, Antioxidant Max Dragon Fruit, Green Tea Honey Lemon Ginseng, Antioxidant Max Blackberry Pomegranate, Antioxidant Max Blood Orange, and English Breakfast Black KCup.
The Hain Celestial tea class action lawsuit takes issue with the use of the term “100% Natural” used on the product packaging and near the logo for these tea products. The class action lawsuit alleges that each of the teas “has been found to contain significant levels of one or more” chemical insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides. The plaintiffs claim that they were “willing to pay for the Products because of the representations that they were ‘100% Natural’ and would not have purchased the Products, would not have paid for the Products, or would have purchased alternative products in the absence of the representations, or with the knowledge that the Products contained Contaminants.”
The Hain Celestial tea class action lawsuit alleges that the labeling of the teas constitute false advertising, breaches of express and implied warranties, and violates the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California Unfair Competition Law, and California Unfair Competition Law.
Hain filed a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit, arguing that the plaintiffs had not supported their allegations.
On June 10, Judge Guilford rejected Hains’ motion to dismiss. “Plaintiffs’ key factual allegation is that the teas contain unnatural pesticides” the judge wrote in his order, “[d]efendant argues that Plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged this fact” and “[t]he Court disagrees.”
“Defendant essentially asks the Court to disbelieve Plaintiffs’ allegation that the teas contain pesticide residues, arguing that deficiencies in the evidence underlying that allegation make the allegation implausible,” Judge Guilford said. “The strength of this evidence is an issue for the factfinder.”
Judge Guilford also addresses Hains’ argument that “the Complaint alleges only that pesticide residues were found on dry tea leaves, not in the brewed tea that consumers actually drink,” writing in his Order that “taking the Complaint’s allegation that dry leaves contain residues as true, it is reasonable to infer that the brewed tea contains traces of pesticides as well.”
Judge Guilford also explains that he rejected Hains’ argument that the legal “claims should be dismissed because Plaintiffs haven’t plausibly alleged that a reasonable consumer would likely be deceived by the ‘100% Natural’ label” because “[t]he question under the reasonable consumer test is whether an advertisement is ‘likely to deceive’ a reasonable consumer. The Complaint adequately alleges that the product label is likely to deceive a reasonable consumer.”
Judge Guilford also rejected Hains’ argument that the 100% Natural label constitutes “mere puffery” and is not actionable. The judge pointed out in his Order that “'[g]eneralized, vague and unspecific assertions’ are ‘mere ‘puffery’ upon which a reasonable consumer could not rely,'” however, “misdescriptions of specific or absolute characteristics of a product are actionable.”
“Based on the allegations in the Complaint,” continued the judge “the Court cannot conclude that ‘100% Natural’ is puffery.”
Hains’ argument that the court should dismiss the Hain Celestial tea class action lawsuit because the Food and Drug Administration should determine whether “all-natural” claims can be made on products with trace amounts of pesticides was also rejected by the judge, who wrote: “[g]iven the FDA’s lack of interest in providing further guidance on the use of the word ‘natural’ in food labeling, staying or dismissing the case to permit the FDA to do so would likely be futile.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Tina Wolfson, Robert Ahdoot and Theodore W. Maya of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC and Christopher P. Ridout and Caleb Marker of Ridout Lyon & Ottoson LLP.
The Celestial Seasonings Tea Class Action Lawsuit is In Re: Hain Celestial Seasonings Products Consumer Litigation, Case No 8:13-cv-01757, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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13 thoughts onCelestial Seasonings Tea Class Action Lawsuit Survives Dismissal
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I picked up a box of sleepy time herbal tea when pregnant with my last child in 2010 at a Walmart In Bristol Va. I thought I would try it because it was supposed to be natural and assumed being natural it would be better for my unborn child. I drank a cup around 30-45mins before my normal bedtime,just one cup. As I got up to go to the restroom I felt dizzy headed which happens sometimes with pregnancy,but it didn’t end there. That night when I slept or let me rephrase tried to sleep I had the worst nightmares I have ever had. I hadn’t really been having any nightmares before that not even with the pregnancy but every night I drank that tea I had nightmares!! After a week of no good sleep I threw it out. After that I was fine and my sleeping pattern went back to normal and no more dizziness getting ready for bedtime or walking. My lil guy is 9 now and his only major problems so far have been febrile seizures as a baby and adhd along with seasonal allergies. Now I kinda wonder sometimes if it could have contributed to any of his troubles.
There should be WARNING labels on these tea boxes, as the ingredients are known natural sedatives and have tranquilizing effects. I was passing out after drinking these teas, fainting. It took me time to realize it was the tea. I thought tea was harmless until I did research on the internet over the ingredients in these teas. And it plain as day says in tons of web sites the side effects of these teas. Yet these teas have no warning labels. I can’t believe how this happened to me, it’s dangerous to drink this tea unaware of the side effects. I am a mom of 3 kids, this is dangerous tea.
How can I become part of the class action lawsuit as well?
They are all decievers.
How can I become a part of the class action
I purchased Celestial Seasonings sleepytime tea because I believed they were ‘100% natural’ per the label.
I also supported them because their labels said that purchasing their products supported fair trade in countries where the ingredients were purchased.
A few months into drinking their tea, my third pack to be precise, I became seriously ill. This included some problems on my skin, including my private parts, and damn was it painful. When I quit the tea, the symptoms stopped.
I went to walk-in clinic for help and an elderly physician without warning suddenly started touching my affected areas with his bare hands without any gloves and without my permission. I wanted him to examine me, not touch me. I felt like I lost my dignity that day. I’ve been living with it ever since.
I eventually had my affected body parts partially healed by a Natural Chinese Herbal Medicine clinic at the cost of $1,800 Canadian. It helped, but was also quite invasive and humiliating.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I handed over the tea samples to the Canadian Health Inspection Agency. A few months later, they responded by saying they found nothing wrong with it. This is a total lie. Other inquiries and requests I made were also ignored by them. It reminds me of the FDAs response as mentioned in the article.
All this happened to me because I was fooled by a label on a tea product. I feel like it partially ruined my life. Never buy from any of these devious corporations. Always research their products online before consuming them and don’t be fooled by their labels.
I will boycott Celestial Seasonings forever.
I’ve bought Celestial Seasonings teas for years having been proud to support a company that started in my hometown of Boulder. I’m absolutely disgusted to think that pesticides are in this tea – whether the word “natural” is regulated by the FDA or not. The people who believed in this brand for years shouldn’t be fooled. I will never buy it again.
This is soo wrong, I am a consumer and have a cabinet full of tea. I search for the words all natural and Organic, half the tea I buy is celestial seasoning the other half is Bigelow brand It is hard for consumers to buy any edible drinkable product these days because we do not know what is in anything and when companies lie on the label and get away with it, our justice system fails, and consumers like me are duped repeatedly. Unless a product outright kills people instantly the slow poisoning from years of exposure to crap is accepted as Puffery,and consumers who rely like me on a label to depict accurate statements about the product are labeled unreasonable. the saddest part here to me is that when you buy tea instead of soda or sugar drinks you think truly you are buying a healthy drink, you are doing something good for yourself, when you drink something you believe should be healing you and it may actually be harming you that is deceptive business whatever the document here states this is absolutely deception that this brand has people drinking pesticide who believe it is organic natural tea
^ what she said.
Absolutely agree with you.