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A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in California federal court alleging Mars Inc. misleadingly packages its Uncle Ben’s rice products.
Plaintiffs Eric Lankenau-Ray, a California resident and Carmen Vargas, a New York resident, filed their class action lawsuit stating that Mars has been “intentionally packaging its Uncle Ben’s rice products (Rice Product/s) in box containers that contain up to 50% empty space.”
Both plaintiffs claim they purchased Uncle Ben’s rice because they believed it to be high quality and paid a premium price as a result.
After buying the Uncle Ben’s rice products, plaintiffs say they expected to find a full container of rice but found that half of the packaging contained empty space, or slack-fill.
“On information and belief, consumers have relied upon, and are continuing to rely upon, the size of the Rice Products containers as the basis for making purchasing decisions. Consumers believe that the Rice Products are substantially full because they cannot see the actual contents of the non-transparent container,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs claim that they would not have paid a premium price or would not have purchased the products at all if they had known the boxes contained so much empty space.
“Had Plaintiffs known about the slack-fill at the time of purchase, they would not have bought Defendant’s Products,” the complaint reads.
According to the proposed class action lawsuit, the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) prohibits slack-fill of products.
The language of the FDCA says that products may be considered misbranded if the following condition is present: “A container that does not allow the consumer to fully view its contents shall be considered to be filled as to be misleading if it contains nonfunctional slack-fill. Slack-fill is the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of product contained therein.”
The lawsuit claims that there’s no functional reason to have the additional space within the packaging.
“Defendant intentionally incorporated non-functional slack-fill in its packaging of Rice Products in order to mislead the consumers, including Plaintiffs and members of the Class,” the complaint asserts.
Lankenau-Ray and Vargas have brought forth multiple counts against Mars including violations of New York’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, violations of California’s False Advertising Law, California’s Unfair Competition Law and California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act as well as negligent misrepresentation.
The plaintiffs are seeking to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who purchased Uncle Ben’s rice that included non-functional slack-fill, as well as a New York and California subclass of such consumers. Hundreds of thousands of members are expected to make up the Class.
In addition to seeking class certification, the plaintiffs are also seeking actual, compensatory, general and special damages, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs as well as any other relief deemed just and proper by the court.
The plaintiffs are represented by Abbas Kazerounian and Andrei Armas of Kazerouni Law Group and Joshua B. Swigart of Hyde & Swigart.
The Uncle Ben’s Rice Slack-Fill Class Action Lawsuit is Eric Lankenau-Ray, et al. v Mars Inc., Case No. 4:16-cv-2660, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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97 thoughts onUncle Ben’s Class Action Says Boxes of Rice Are Only Half-Filled
I noticed that the amount of rice wasn’t very much in the Uncle Ben package
I always assumed it was due to settling that it looked like it was only half full. I kinda thought that there shouldnt be that much settling.
Where do I sign?
Really!! Is this what has become of people in this country? If I remember correctly, quite a few years ago this issue was addressed by a number of company products. On the packages some place it states net weight in addition to some settling may have occurred during shipping. Its all about lawyers making major money with them throwing bones to their greedy clients. Wake up people!!
The same applies to Potato Chips. King size bag of Potato Chip cost $4.99 per bag, its down right shameful.
What is shameful? They are selling you a SET WEIGHT of potato chips. They settle while shipping, and the puffy bag helps protect them. But if they did not sell in a large bag, useless morons like you would sue them for crushed chips.
Weight does not indicate how many chips you might have in a bag that you might be sharing with company Mr. Know-everything Sean. For example, baked chips are thicker and thus heavier. Therefore the bag might have the same weight, but have 25% fewer chips to go around. However, chips can settle and have more reason for empty space. Rice does not settle, thus no reason for a half empty box other than to confuse the buyer. That was the law that was broken. Your thinking is like the Campbells Soup can that says you only get a days worth of sodium, yet you are actually getting 2 days worth because it claims that can is 2 servings. Few people notice this since most people do not eat half a bowl of soup.
Really Les? Now can you tell us which specific law was broken? Did they falsely advertise the amount of rice they were selling? Nope. Is there a law against using packaging larger than is needed? (There should be since that is wasteful), but the answer is still NO. If the package says 16 oz of rice, and that is what you got, then what is the problem? Once you cook the rice, it will fill more than the size of the box. Will you then complain that the box is too small? LOL. People these days!!!
Where do I sign up to join this class action law suit?
Thats why i stopped buying the product because it looked like they were putting less rice in the box but the box got bigger but less product. and i liked the product what a shame
The product is the same, why be so silly and not buy it? It is sold by WEIGHT!! Are you capable of reading the NET WEIGHT on the bottom of ALL PACKAGING?? DO you even know what weight meaurements like ounces and grams are?
Sean, You are such an ass. That is the very reason for the class action. The amount by weight does not match the required box size. Many people do not weigh out portions, but base them on how big the box is. Minute rice takes up more volume by weight than regular rice, for example.
Thats why i stopped buying the product because it looked like they were putting less rice in the box but the box got bigger but less product
This is so true and I buy it cause I like it and its ashame that its like that
Send link to file claim please.