Arrowhead Water Class Action Accusing Nestlé Tossed by 9th Circuit

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Arrowhead Water Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: Nestlé has dodged a class action lawsuit alleging that it falsely labeled its Arrowhead brand water as being from Arrowhead Mountain.
• Why: The Ninth Circuit ruled that no reasonable consumer would be misled by the picture on the label, as there was other text saying the water was sourced from various mountain springs.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed and dismissed in California.

An Arrowhead water class action lawsuit accusing Nestlé of deceptively marketing the bottled beverage as sourced from Arrowhead Mountain has been tossed out by a Ninth Circuit panel, affirming a California federal court’s decision.

The three-judge panel backed up the federal court’s decision that Connie Chong’s class action lawsuit alleging that Nestlé Waters North America Inc violated various California consumer protection laws could be decided on the pleadings.

“The court was correct to find that this case ‘presents the rare case where this Court may conclude on the pleadings that no reasonable consumer would be misled by any of the product labels at issue in this suit,’” the panel wrote.

While the panel accepted that Chong truly believed that the mountain on the front of the labels was Arrowhead Mountain and that the bottled water was sourced from there, it determined that a “reasonable consumer” would not be misled by the Arrowhead labels given Nestlé’s label says the water is collected from various mountain springs and not just one specific mountain.

“Upon reviewing the labels submitted for judicial notice by Nestlé, [the district court] determined that there was not ‘any indication that the image of the mountain and lake refer to any specific mountain or lake, but rather to the true statement that Arrowhead Water is comprised entirely of mountain spring water,’” the panel wrote.

In the earlier decision, US District Judge Dolly M. Gee wrote that the image of a mountain does not somehow “delete” the other words on the label, reports Law360.

“The mountain and lake images, when combined with the source information and explicit notation that Arrowhead is a brand name, would not mislead a reasonable consumer into believing that Arrowhead water is sourced exclusively from one ‘Arrowhead Mountain,'” Gee wrote.

Chong argued in her appeal that Gee erred in dismissing her claims under California’s Unfair Competition Law, False and Misleading Advertising Law, and the California Legal Remedies Act by finding that a “reasonable consumer” would not be misled by the Arrowhead labels, however, that argument was rejected by the panel. 

Arrowhead Water Bottles Targeted in Recent Consumer Class Action

While Nestlé has escaped legal action over the water, in July, consumers filed a class action lawsuit against Bluetriton Brands, Inc. and Niagara Bottling, LLC claiming the companies falsely advertised that the water bottles that are used by major brands, including Arrowhead, Niagara, Costco Kirkland, Poland Spring, Ozarka, and Deer Park are recyclable, despite not meeting recyclability standards under New Jersey state law. 

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The plaintiff is represented by Juan Hong of the Law Office of Juan Hong, A Law Corp.

The Nestlé Arrowhead Water False Ad Class Action Lawsuit is Connie Chong v. Nestlé Waters North America, Inc., Case No. 20-56373, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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