Judge will not dismiss lawsuit claiming Poland Spring water is not from a spring

Primo Brands

31/12/2024 19:06

By Jonathan Stempel
       Dec 31 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Connecticut
refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the former
Nestle Waters North America of defrauding consumers by labeling
its Poland Spring bottled water as "spring water."
    While rejecting some claims in the proposed class action,
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven called it
an open question whether Poland Spring qualified as spring water
under the laws of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
    Poland Spring is now owned by Primo Brands  PRMB.N ,
following multiple corporate transactions. The Tampa,
Florida-based company had no immediate comment on Tuesday.
    Consumers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle  NESN.S ,
in 2017, saying it deceived them into overpaying for Poland
Spring with labels declaring it to be "Natural Spring Water" or
"100% Natural Spring Water."
    The plaintiffs said "not one drop" of the 1 billion gallons
sold annually in the United States came from a natural spring,
and that the actual Poland Spring in Maine "ran dry" two decades
before Nestle bought the brand in 1992.
    In seeking a dismissal, Nestle Waters said geologists and
officials in the eight states agreed that Poland Spring complied
with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule defining spring
water, and each state authorized its sale as "spring water."
    But the judge cited a former Syracuse University earth
sciences professor hired by the plaintiffs, who said Nestle
Waters appeared to use man-made springs and extracted pond water
and other surface water instead of "true" spring water.
    Meyer agreed with Nestle Waters that the plaintiffs lacked
standing to demand new labels, because they now knew the alleged
"truth" about Poland Spring and could buy other brands of water.
    Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
    Nestle Waters had been Nestle's North American bottled water
business. Nestle sold it in 2021 to two private equity firms,
which renamed it BlueTriton. That company merged in November
with the former Primo Water to form Primo Brands.
    The case is Patane v. Nestle Waters North America Inc, U.S.
District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381.

 (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
Editing by Nick Zieminski)
 ((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters
Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))