iSpring Class Action Says Water Filtration Products Are Not ‘Made In USA’

Water filtration company iSpring faces a class action lawsuit alleging consumers are tricked into believing iSpring products are made in the United States.

Lead plaintiff Timothy O’Sullivan claims that iSpring’s marketing campaign implies its products, including various reverse osmosis filters for showers and faucets and filter cartridges, are made in the United States, when components of the products are actually from overseas.

According to the class action lawsuit, iSpring products are #1 sellers at well-known retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot. In fact, says the plaintiff, iSpring advertises itself as “the ‘#1 Best Seller’ of water filtration systems in the United States.”

The plaintiff further alleges that iSpring markets its products as made in the United States. The plaintiff says that he paid $186 for a residential reverse osmosis water filtration system.

According to the plaintiff, iSpring “is able to sell the Products for a premium because, as highlighted in the following images, Defendant advertised, marketed, labeled, packaged and/or disseminated the Products with express and/or implied representations that the Products are made in the United States.”

“A 2015 survey by Consumer Reports magazine found that almost 80% of Americans are willing to pay more for American-made goods,” says the plaintiff in his class action lawsuit.

The plaintiff further alleges that he “is a patriotic American who seeks out and prefers to purchase goods made in the United States rather than imported goods, and is willing to pay a premium for American-made goods.”

“For a product to be called American-made or claimed to be of domestic origin, without qualifications or limits on that claim, the product must be ‘all or virtually all’ made in the United States,” O’Sullivan claims.

However, the iSpring class action says that in February 2017, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against iSpring alleging that it “deceived consumers with false, misleading, or unsupported claims that its Products are ‘Built in USA,’ ‘Built in USA Legendary brand of water filter,’ and ‘Proudly Built in the USA.’”

iSpring has agreed to stop marketing its products as made in the United States in response to the FTC complaint, says the class action.

The plaintiff alleges that he and other putative Class Members would not have paid a premium for iSpring products had they known the products were not made in the USA. “Like other Class members,” alleges the complaint. “Plaintiff prefers to ‘buy American’ because of his ‘belief in American quality and safety,’ and because it is ‘the best way to support the American economy and workers.’”

O’Sullivan seeks to represent nationwide Class of individuals who purchased iSpring water filtration products, along with a South Carolina subclass. The plaintiff says that iSpring’s marketing campaign violated various state consumer protection laws and that iSpring was unjustly enriched. He is seeking damages and injunction stopping iSpring from continuing its deceptive marketing campaign.

The plaintiff is represented by James W. Hurt Jr. of Hurt Stolz PC and Gary M. Klinger of Kozonis Law LTD.

The iSpring “Made in the USA” Class Action Lawsuit is O’Sullivan v. iSpring Water Systems LLC, Case No. 1:17-cv-02237-WSD, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.