Harmless Harvest To Pay $1M in Coconut Water Class Action Settlement

In a swift win for coconut water drinkers, Harmless Harvest has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging deceptive labeling practices.

Filed on December 23 in New York federal court, the $1 million settlement was reached just four days later, resolving allegations that a significant portion of the coconuts sourced from Thailand by Harmless Harvest for use in their 100% Raw Coconut Water line were not in fact organic.

Brought by plaintiffs Guoliang Ma, Elizabeth Peguero, Sharon Manier, and Kin Fai Lau, the proposed class action lawsuit claims consumers paid a premium for Harmless Harvest Coconut Water relying on the product’s labeling that the coconut water was “100% Organic” and “Raw.”

Instead, the coconut water was false and misleadingly labeled since it contained some non-organic ingredients, reportedly purchased from street vendors and unknown supply sources.

The class action lawsuit claims the following four varieties of coconut water are mislabeled: Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water (later renamed Harmless Coconut Water), Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water – Dark Cacao, Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water – Cinnamon & Clove, and Harmless Harvest 100% Raw Coconut Water – Fair Trade Coffee.

Under the terms of the settlement, Harmless Harvest will change and monitor the accuracy of its product labels. Specifically, Harmless Harvest has agreed to remove the allegedly false and misleading statements of “100% Organic” and “Raw” from its coconut water products packaging.

The company has also agreed to engage an independent third party consultant for a period of two years from the effective date of the settlement deal. This third party consultant will review the product labels for ongoing accuracy and provide reports as to the accuracy to plaintiffs’ counsel.

Additionally, the settlement provides payment of plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees in the amount of $575,000 and incentive awards to the four named plaintiffs totaling $20,000. Harmless Harvest will also pay claims administration costs up to $350,000.

“Plaintiffs believe that the Settlement provides an excellent recovery for Settlement Members and falls well within the range of reasonableness, such that preliminary approval is warranted,” court documents state.

The settlement Class includes “all persons in the United States who made retail purchases of one of more of Harmless Harvest’s coconut water products in the United States at any time from September 30, 2011, through the date of Preliminary Approval.”

Harmless Harvest released a statement to Top Class Actions on Jan. 13, confirming that the company agreed to settle the consumer class action lawsuit to avoid a long and costly legal battle. However, Harmless Harvest vigorously denies any wrongdoing or liability and asserts the legitimacy of its organic certification.

“Like so many other food, beverage and consumer product companies facing distracting and unwarranted lawsuits today, we have reached a settlement with a plaintiffs’ law firm with the best interests of our consumers, employees and suppliers in mind,” said Whitney Spielfogel, Director of Communications for Harmless Harvest. “If we had unlimited time and financial resources we would fight this case to the end in court, confident in the knowledge that we would prevail because our products are safe, wholesome and organic.”

Harmless Harvest further states that its products are certified organic by Bioagricert, which is a “highly respected independent certification and control body based in Europe, is accredited by the 1990 U.S. Organic Food Productions Act (OFPA) to carry out such authorizations.”

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by C.K. Lee, Anne Seelig, Angela Kwon and Taimur Alamigur of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The Harmless Harvest “Raw” Coconut Water Class Action Lawsuit is Guoliang Ma, et al. v. Harmless Harvest Inc., Case No. 2:16-cv-07102, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

UPDATE: The Harmless Harvest “100% Raw” Coconut Water Class Action Settlement is now open. Click here for more information.