Lowe’s Hit With Another False Ad. Class Action Over Mulch Contents

Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC was hit with another false advertising class action lawsuit alleging that it under fills its bags of mulch by a significant amount.

Plaintiff Glenn McMillan, a California resident, claims in his May 6 class action lawsuit that Lowes, along with Harvest Power, Inc., which makes the mulch, and Gro-Well Brands, Inc., which is the private label for Lowe’s mulch, misrepresents the amount of mulch in their bags.

“Lowe’s, Harvest Power, and Gro-Well were responsible for ensuring that the uniform amount of mulch distributed in each bag of Premium Mulch matched the representations on the bag regarding the amount of mulch in each bag of Premium Mulch,” McMillan says in his Lowe’s class action lawsuit.

He explains that on each premium mulch bag, it says that they contain the “net contents” of two cubic feet of mulch, and that the mulch contained in each bag is supposed to be enough to cover a specifically defined area.”

For example, the Lowe’s mulch class action lawsuit alleges, Lowe’s states that four bags of the two cubic feet of mulch should be enough to cover 48 square feet of property and be two inches deep, or one bag will cover 12 square feet at the same depth.

However, on other bags, it states that four bags will cover 50 square feet and be two inches deep.

But if the bags do not contain two cubic feet, they are not going to cover 12 inches at a depth of two inches. And even if the bags do contain two cubic feet, McMillan argues that it is false to argue that four bags will cover 50 square feet at the same depth.

McMillan says that he purchased premium mulch from Lowe’s in April 2014 that were made and packaged by Harvest Power and Gro-Well, trusting the claims made on the packaging about how much mulch were contained in each bag.

“The bags of Premium Mulch purchased by Plaintiff did not contain two cubic feet of mulch, and in fact, contained substantially and materially less than two cubic feet of mulch,” he says in his Lowe’s class action lawsuit.

“The bags of Premium Mulch purchased by Plaintiff contained approximately 1.50 cubic feet of mulch, or approximately 25 percent less than advertised,” he explained.

McMillan says that if he had known the mulch product was going to contain less of the mulch than advertised, he would not have purchased the product, but he says that he and other Lowe’s customers have no way of knowing that it contains less than advertised until after they purchase the product.

According to the class action lawsuit, the attorneys representing McMillan hired a private investigator to see if it was a wide spread problem.

“The private investigator purchased multiple bags of Premium Mulch from three Lowe’s retail stores, and measured the amount of mulch contained in each bag,” the Lowe’s mulch class action lawsuit claims. “This investigation revealed that each bag of Premium Mulch contained substantially and materially less than two cubic feet of mulch (i.e., an average of approximately 1.5 cubic feet of mulch, or 25 percent less mulch than advertised in each bag),” similar to McMillan’s experience.

McMillan is looking to represent a nationwide class of individuals who purchased premium mulch from Lowe’s on or after May 27, 2004.

He is charging Lowe’s with violating the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, the California False Advertising Law, consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices acts in several states in the country, fraudulent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.

Lowe’s was hit with a similar class action lawsuit in an Illinois federal court by McMillan, along with another plaintiff, in June 2014 making similar claims about the contents of its mulch products.

Plaintiffs are represented by Todd M. Friedman of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC and Adam M. Tamburelli, Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr. and Matthew C. De Re ofZimmerman Law Offices PC.

There is no attorney information available for the defendants at this time.

The Lowe’s Mulch Class Action Lawsuit is McMillan v. Lowe’s Home Centers LLC et al., Case No. 1:15-cv-00695, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.