Coca-Cola on the defensive over juice case
A bottle of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice is shown next to a pomegranate. The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21, 2014 heard an appeal by Pomegranate-juice maker POM Wonderful LLC, which alleges that Coca-Cola Co. deceived consumers about the contents of a juice offered by the latter’s Minute Maid unit. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- The US soft drinks giant is being sued by Californian fruit juice maker Pom Wonderful, who accuse Coca-Cola of misleading consumers about its Minute Maid drink “Pomegranate Blueberry” that contains only 0.5 per cent of the two fruits.
WASHINGTON,
Coca-Cola was taken to task by the US Supreme Court yesterday, with judges questioning whether a drink sold as fruit juice was the real thing.
The US soft drinks giant is being sued by Californian fruit juice maker Pom Wonderful, who accuse Coca-Cola of misleading consumers about its Minute Maid drink “Pomegranate Blueberry” that contains only 0.5 per cent of the two fruits.
Pom Wonderful attorney Seth Waxman said consumers were being misled by Coca-Cola branding the drink — which was mostly apple or grape — as “Pomegranate Blueberry.”
Pom Wonderful, which sells 100 per cent pomegranate juice, was suffering as a result of Coca-Cola’s practices, Waxman argued.
Coca-Cola won an earlier case in a San Francisco court, which ruled that the company’s labelling practices were consistent with US Food and Drug Administration regulations.
According to Coca-Cola attorney Kathleen Sullivan, the FDA was responsible for a “national uniformity” of labelling.
Justice Anthony Kennedy asked whether it was “Coke’s position that national uniformity consists in labels that cheat the consumers like this one did.”
Justice Samuel Alito also asked whether consumers purchasing the product expecting to receive the health benefits of pomegranate juice “would be very surprised to find... that it has less than one-half of 1 per cent of pomegranate juice.”
A decision is expected in June.
