Giant Sports Hit with Nitrogen-Spiking Class Action Lawsuit

A nitrogen-spiking class action lawsuit has been filed against Giant Sports Products LLC alleging the company spikes its Giant Sports Delicious Protein powder product with nitrogen to save on costs of using real, more expensive protein.

On Oct. 29, plaintiff Lazaro Rodriguez filed this Giant Sports class action lawsuit in California federal court alleging he “purchased the product Giant Sports Delicious Protein (the ‘Product’) from Defendant who misrepresents the amount of protein available in the Product.” The plaintiff claims he and other Class Members purchased the Giant Sports Delicious Protein powder a number of retail stores and online websites.

Rodriguez claims that because the wholesale price for whey protein is ever increasing and reducing the profit margin for powdered protein products, Giant Sports allegedly aimed to cut costs by adding cheaper amino acids to increase a nitrogen content of the company’s protein powder. By doing so, Rodriguez and other consumers allegedly “suffered an injury in fact caused by the false, fraudulent, unfair, unlawful, deceptive and misleading practices” of Giant Sports.

According to the nitrogen-spiking class action lawsuit, “Nitrogen is the ‘tag’ used by a common protein content test to determine the amount of protein in a product; but this is neither a direct measure of the actual protein content in a product nor a measure of the type of nitrogen containing compounds in a product.” Rodriguez alleges that, due to Giant Sports’ nitrogen spiking practices, consumers receive a product containing 60 percent less whey protein than advertised.

Additionally, the Giant Sports nitrogen-spiking class action lawsuit claims, “Despite the knowledge that ‘protein-spiking’ is misleading to consumers, Defendant continues to advertise, distribute, label, manufacture and market the Product in a misleading and deceptive manner.” Not only is the alleged nitrogen-spiking practices of Giant Sports misleading to consumers, but this sort of practice is also condemned by the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA).

In this Giant Sports nitrogen-spiking class action lawsuit, Rodriguez seeks to represent himself and a national Class of “All persons in the United States that purchased Giant Sports Delicious Protein at any time during the four years before the date of filing of this Complaint to the present.” He is also seeking to certify a subclass of California consumers who bought the product during the same Class Period.

This nitrogen-spiking class action lawsuit brings several allegations against Giant Sports, including claims of Violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Violation of False Advertising Law, Violation of the Unfair Competition Act, unjust enrichment and breach of express warranty. Rodriguez is seeking restitution and disgorgement of profits by Giant Sports to the plaintiff and the Class.

The Giant Sports Nitrogen-Spiking Class Action Lawsuit is Rodriguez v. Giant Sports Products LLC, Case No. 2:14-cv-08378-RGK-AS, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.