Starbucks Class Action Says Energy Drinks Contain No ‘White Chocolate’

Starbucks customers say that the coffee chain’s white chocolate energy drinks contain no white chocolate, and that the stores intentionally mislead consumers about the nature of the product.

Plaintiff Juan Rafael Marten says that he purchased a 12 pack of the Starbucks White Chocolate Doubleshot Energy Drink on Amazon.com.

He claims that after he purchased the product, he discovered that the coffee beverage contained no white chocolate, as advertised. Allegedly, the product contains an imitation white chocolate.

According to the Starbucks class action, the coffee chain intentionally played on the value customers place on white chocolate.

The plaintiff says that much of that value comes from the presence of cocoa butter in white chocolate, but the imitation white chocolate used in the drink contains no cocoa butter.

The Starbucks coffee class action states that “white chocolate signifies only one thing: a confection that contains cocoa butter, dairy ingredients and a sweetener.”

Marten goes on to say that “the imitation white chocolate in the product does not have cocoa butter as required, and instead has other cheap confectionary ingredients to imitate the taste of white chocolate.”

The Starbucks Doubleshot Energy Drink class action claims that consumers were financially injured by their purchase of the product and the false advertising of it.

The plaintiff seeks damages on behalf of himself and all other similarly affected consumers. He says that he and many other customers would not have purchased the coffee beverage if they had known that it did not contain white chocolate, or would not have paid as much for it.

Allegedly, consumers should reasonably be able to trust that the advertisement of the product is consistent with its nature, and most consumers do not have another way of determining a product’s ingredients other than the labels provided by the product’s maker.

The Starbucks white chocolate energy drink class action lawsuit says that the company knew or should have known what the federal regulations for white chocolate are, and violated those regulations nonetheless.

The Starbucks class action lawsuit says both state and federal regulations specify that a product must have 20 percent cocoa butter by weight and must be made with cacao fat to be considered white chocolate.

Allegedly, the product does not meet these requirements, and does not contain any cocoa butter. It reportedly contains other “cheap confectionary ingredients to include the taste of white chocolate” instead, and is labeled as being “natural and artificial flavored.”

This false advertising class action lawsuit comes on the heels of other false labeling cases also brought forward by Marten’s attorney including a case in which other plaintiffs claimed that Arizona Beverage Company and Barilla America Inc. falsely advertised their products as being free from preservatives.

Marten is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The Starbucks White Chocolate Energy Drink False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Marten v. Starbucks Corp., Case No. 1:18-cv-09201, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: On Dec. 19, 2018, Starbucks argued that their white chocolate energy drinks are labeled as “naturally and artificially flavored,” therefore a class action lawsuit against the coffee company should be dismissed.