Don Francisco Class Action Says Coffee Has Artificial Flavors

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.

Gavinia & Sons Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it misrepresents Don Francisco’s flavored coffee by not disclosing the fact that its flavored with artificial ingredients.

Plaintiff Taylor Ely says he purchased and consumed Don Francisco’s flavored coffee products, including the Cinnamon Hazelnut and Vanilla Nut flavors. According to the flavored coffee class action lawsuit, he paid about $15 per 12-ounce can of ground coffee.

When making the decision to purchase Don Francisco-branded flavored coffee, Ely claims he relied upon a variety of representations made on the products’ labels, including large photographs of a vanilla bean pod, a vanilla bean flower, cinnamon sticks and actual hazelnuts. The Don Francisco class action lawsuit alleges these images “suggest to the consumer that these were superior Products with premium, natural ingredients and natural flavors.”

Ely asserts that the flavored coffee products include on the back of the package in small print that a consumer is unlikely to notice a disclaimer that the products actually contain “natural and/or artificial flavors.” According to the flavored coffee class action lawsuit, this phrasing is misleading.

“The use of the words ‘and/or’ indicate that Defendant itself does not know if it is including actual or artificial flavoring in the Products on a regular basis, or does know but feels it does not have to provide the truth to consumers,” Ely alleges in the Don Francisco coffee class action lawsuit.

Ely asserts that the labels on Don Francisco coffee products are deceptive and give Gavinia & Sons an unfair advantage over its competitors that have chosen to honestly and lawfully indicate that their products are artificially flavored.

According to the flavored coffee class action lawsuit, Ely did not discover that Don Francisco’s coffee products contained artificial flavoring until March 2016. He says that he would not have purchased the Don Francisco coffee products if he had known that they were misbranded according to federal law.

The Don Francisco class action lawsuit asserts violations of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, breach of express warranty and breach of implied warranty of merchantability.

Ely seeks to represent a Class of consumers who purchased flavored ground Don Francisco coffee products in California since May 18, 2006. He is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, restitution and disgorgement, corrective advertising, attorneys’ fees and other costs. He has demanded a trial by jury.

The flavored coffee products at issue in the Don Francisco coffee class action lawsuit include but are not limited to the following flavors: Vanilla Nut, Cinnamon Hazelnut, Hawaiian Hazelnut, Caramel Cream, Butterscotch Toffee, Caramel Spiced Rum, Frosted Oatmeal Cookie, L’Orange, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Chocolate Raspberry, Coconut Cream, Cookies & Cream, Crème D’Irlande, French Caramel, French Vanilla, Hazelnut Cream, Macadamia Nut, Nutty Doodle and Vienna Cinnamon.

Ely is represented by Ronald A. Marron and Skye Resendes of Law Offices of Ronald A. Marron APLC and David Elliot of Law Office of David Elliot.

The Don Francisco’s Flavored Coffee Class Action Lawsuit is Taylor Ely v. F. Gavinia & Sons Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-02694-WHA, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.