Ninth Circuit on Westbrae Vanilla Soymilk Flavor

Saturday, December 5, 2020

On December 1, 2020, america District Courtroom Northern District of California granted Westbrae Pure, Inc.’s (“Defendant”) movement to dismiss the plaintiff’s lawsuit. Within the criticism, the plaintiff alleged that the usage of the phrase “vanilla” on the label of Defendant’s natural unsweetened vanilla soymilk misrepresents to shoppers that the soymilk’s vanilla taste is derived solely from the vanilla bean plant. The plaintiff additionally claimed that the soymilk is made with no or negligible quantities of pure vanilla and needs to be labeled “artificially flavored.”

Within the movement to dismiss, Defendant argued that the plaintiff didn’t allege {that a} cheap shopper can be deceived by the “vanilla” label into believing that the soymilk’s vanilla taste is derived solely from the vanilla bean. The courtroom agreed with the Defendant and acknowledged that the “label doesn’t comprise another phrases or footage that recommend the vanilla taste is derived solely from the vanilla bean.”

As help for his allegations, the plaintiff offered a 2020 survey within the criticism, which allegedly confirmed that 69.5% of 400 shoppers believed that the “vanilla” illustration on the label meant that the soymilk’s taste comes solely from the vanilla bean. The courtroom acknowledged that the outcomes of the 2020 survey don’t make plaintiff’s claims believable and {that a} survey, alone, doesn’t fulfill the cheap shopper check. The courtroom gave plaintiff 20 days to refile his criticism to deal with its shortcomings.

This lawsuit follows a number of lawsuits filed in 2020 the place plaintiffs accused companies of misrepresenting the vanilla flavoring in a number of meals and beverage merchandise. We are going to proceed to observe any developments.