Pirate’s Booty Lawsuit Says Snack Product is 44% Empty Space

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The makers of Pirate’s Booty are facing a lawsuit alleging the products are deceptively packaged and include more than 44.44 percent empty space.

Plaintiff David Greenstein is accusing B&G Food Inc. and Pirate Brands LLC of manufacturing and marketing its Pirate’s Booty products with excessive slack-fill that serves no function.

According to the Pirate’s Booty lawsuit, Greenstein paid $2 for a package of Aged White Cheddar Pirate’s Booty on April 3. The opaque packaging allegedly made it impossible for Greenstein to view the content contained within so that he was unaware of the slack-fill issue until he opened the package.

When he opened the package, Greenstein observed that there was a great deal of empty space. He says that the available space for the Pirate’s Booty product if the package were 100 percent full would be 5 3/8 inches. However, the Pirate’s Booty lawsuit says that the actual product takes up about 2 3/8 inches.

Greenstein estimates that this unutilized space amounts to 44.44 percent of slack-fill, an amount that is allegedly excessive and violates California’s consumer protection laws. He says he would not have paid as much for the Pirate’s Booty product if he had known it contained an excessive amount of slack-fill.

“Plaintiff did not expect the packages to be crammed full of product, or filled to the full available space; plaintiff understands and acknowledges that there are legitimate reasons for a certain amount of slack fill,” Greenstein says in the Pirate’s Booty lawsuit. For example, a certain amount of slack-fill may be necessary to accommodate machines used in packaging the product or to protect the product from becoming damaged.

However, he “contends that a large percentage of the slack fill in the package serves no benefit to the product or the consumer, and thus is non-functional in violation of California laws.”

According to the Pirate’s Booty lawsuit, the defendants manufactured, marketed and sold the Pirate Booty’s product knowing that it contained excessive slack-fill, which Greenstein says is “part of a systematic practice to deceive consumers.” He claims the defendants have been unjustly enriched as a result of this practice.

Greenstein says his primary purpose for filing the Pirate’s Booty lawsuit is to stop the defendants from continuing to engage in this deceptive practice.

He is seeking general damages, attorneys’ fees, injunctive relief, punitive and/or exemplary damages, costs of suit and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.

Greenstein filed the Pirate Booty lawsuit against B&G Food Inc. and Pirate Brands LLC on June 5 in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. It was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on June 30.

The defendants deny the allegations set forth in Greenstein’s Pirate Booty lawsuit, and assert that Greenstein lacks standing to bring the lawsuit, that he failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, plus other defenses to the litigation.

Greenstein is representing himself.

The Pirate’s Booty Slack-Fill Lawsuit is David Greenstein v. B&G Foods Inc. and Pirate Brands LLC, Case No. 2:17-cv-04839, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.