Barilla pasta is facing an interesting class action out of California after Matthew Sinatro and Jessica Prost sued over the claim on every box as “Italy’s No. 1 brand of pasta.” The problem is that the pasta is actually made in Iowa and New York.
The plaintiffs argue that “consumers willingly pay more for Italian sounding and/or looking products,” and such products are known to use Italian durum wheat considered ideal for pasta. However, they charge that the company is making the pasta domestically and using non-Italian durum wheat. With the use of the Italian flag and marketing imagery, they allege that the company is clearly leading consumers to believe the false suggestion that this is a product made in Italy.
Barilla filed a motion to dismiss and stressed that consumers are expressly told on its website that the products are produced in Iowa and New York as well as Canada.
The website stresses “the machines used in our Ames and Avon plants are the same as used in our plant in Parma, Italy. The recipe and the wheat blend are the same as that used in Parma, Italy. Barilla purchases its wheat from around the world, ending up with the best wheat available.”
That was not enough for U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu who handed down a mixed ruling. Ryu held that Sinatro and Prost have suffered injury in purchasing boxes of Barilla pasta of angel hair and spaghetti respectively for $2.00 per box in California. She granted and denied parts of the motion to dismiss.
In a critical ruling, Ryu held:
Barilla asks the court to decide as a matter of law that the Challenged Representation can mean only one thing. However, Plaintiffs have alleged that the Challenged Representation appears with the colors of the Italian flag, and that this imagery further reinforces the notion that the products “are authentic pastas from Italy.” See FAC ¶ 2. The Challenged Representation is also part of the products’ packaging in the context of an alleged marketing campaign that emphasizes the company’s Italian identity, including a website “that markets the Barilla® brand and company as undeniably Italian, dedicated to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of Italian-made pastas.” See id. at ¶¶ 16, 18-20. Viewed in this context, the FAC plausibly alleges that the Challenged Representation supports a reasonable inference that the products were made in Italy from Italian ingredients, and “a probability that a significant portion of the general consuming public or of targeted consumers, acting reasonably in the circumstances, could be misled” by the Challenged Representation.
While denying injunctive relief and rejecting the applicability of some precedent to support the complaint, the court will allow the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint and the case can now go forward with claims under California’s unfair competition and business practices laws, false advertising, breach of warranty, and unjust enrichment.
Here is the ruling: Order on Motion to Dismiss
Can we please stop all the nonsense lawsuits? Barrilla makes pasta all over the world. So what? An Italian flag on the label only implies it is Italian style food just like a Mexican flag on a jar of salsa implies it is Mexican style food. If you buy a Mercedes made in Alabama does that mean it isn’t “German engineering”? No. Texas Pete hot sauce is made in North Carolina. So what? Texas Pete is his name, not his address. Lawsuit should only be for product defects and blatant false advertising. Any law suit that includes “gives the impression that” should be trashed.
Jeff, this popped up in my news feed today. I hadn’t heard about the Texas Pete issue until you mentioned it.
To prove their point, the complaint included a “true and correct” image of the hot sauce bottle — the front of the bottle, I should say.
Of course, they left out any mention of the back of the bottle, which clearly indicates where the stuff is made.
https://www.westernjournal.com/cali-man-sues-hotsauce-maker-reads-bottle-shocked-learn-eating/?
That decision should be reworded to read: “a probability that a significant portion of morons in CA who are too lazy to read the labels could be misled by the Challenged Representation.”
Pfizer executives couldn’t be reached for comment.
They’re far too busy raking in and counting their own “dough”. 😉
😉 And protected by the government from any liability.
There’s nothing “deceptive” about that pasta if those lazy and devious plaintiffs would have read the label. So sick of jerks like them, and the judges who enable this kind of litigation lunacy.
Soon NO company in America will want to sell any food product in California if this stupidity continues. When people cannot or won’t read the label and then say the company lied to them because they make a product using the same ingredients as where the product orginated companies will stop selling in that state. For example, taco shells. How many have Hispanic names and are made in somewhere like Ohio? This case will be very telling especially if these clowns win. El Taco and Taco Bell will be in real trouble along with Arbie’s and their Greek gyro. When the left go woke they leave behind a trail of broken companies and I am afraid that this is going to be the outcome of this case.
If Barrila choses not to sell Pasta in California – that sounds fine to me.
Californians shoudl have to reap what they sow.
Pay the price for their stupid policies.
I am waiting on what the SC will rule on National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (aka Proposition 12). The SC rules in favor of Ross (prop12) those producers could just opt out of the CA market.
One study noted if they did opt out of the CA market, the price of a pound of bacon would go from $6 to $9.60 or a 60% increase.
Someone is looking for a payday far in excess of the $2.00 box of pasta.
Wait until they discover that French fries are not from France.
I’m definitely going after Thomas’s after having learned their English Muffins are not, in fact, from the United Kingdom.
Would anyone care for some French toast? How about some Swedish meatballs? Hawaiian pizza your thing, eh? That one actually came from Canada. I can just see the plaintiffs bar lighting up California’s Temples of Jurisprudence litigating these gross misrepresentations.
There are no existential threats in the world today – from legitimate Italian pasta to Climate Change to global nuclear war – that will not require extensive international co-operation among the earth’s nation-states.
While unsavory and deceptive business practices are unbounded ubiquitous these days (most ‘smart phones’ have ‘scam’ alerts built in), it seems a bit surreal to dwell on the veracity of [Brilla’s claim as] ‘Italy’s No. 1 Brand of Pasta’. Pasta is Italian. .. and I fail to see how two Californians even have ‘standing’?
*I’m thinking about suing the NYT as USA’s No. 1 Brand of ‘All the News That’s Fit to Print’.
The Iowa Barilla plant is in Ames, home of Iowa State University, been there less than 20 years. Not sure why Iowa. The plant is on I 35, and 25 miles to I 80. The plant has a rail spur from the twin track UP Railroad just a couple of miles south. ISU has a well respected food science dept, and of course a respected engineering college.
The grain all has to come from northern MN, North Dakota and Canada. Mostly on rail. Iowa grows great corn and soy, but small grains are heading out and filling grain during some of the hottest weather, seriously affecting test weight, and quality. About an hour east is Cedar Rapids, home to 3 oat milling operations. They were positioned in Cedar Rapids because the rapids turned countless mills before electricity. They too have almost all the grain delivered by rail.
As far as the #1 brand in Italy. I thought the courts had sorted out that kind of language decades ago. there must be 100 ways to quantify #1 That’s child’s play for anyone with a passing association with working statistics.
The number one brand of independently owned restaurants in Italy? You can build your sample anyway you want, to support the claim.
The first thing we do…
The world is falling apart and these people are worrying about flour and location? Seriously?!!?!?! Get a grip and buy another pasta. If you like the quality and taste, buy it. These people who are suing must have nothing else to do … (like me today for even taking the time to write an opinion. But it really is too nonsensical to pass up on comment!) If they get an money, it should be paid in product — shipped from Italy!!!
That’s what I was think. Seriously???
Karen: Home run! You’ve been reading my mind again.
Part of this is a creation of stupid labeling laws.
I believe Barrier is actually the largest pasta maker in the WORLD.
But boxes of Barilla that are made int he US must say so.
And these same flakes will complain about anthropogenic climate change…
Buy local products, not imports from half way around the world!
On the other hand, why should companies be permitted tio use deceptive advertising? Is honesty an historic relic in commerce today? Why place the burden on customers to research each and every product they buy?
It’s your money. Caveat Emptor.
Why should Politicians??
Maybe they should read the labels and not rely on their childish beliefs. This is called being a responsible consumer and they don’t have to research anything it’s out there on the label for EVERYONE to read.
Because lying is not illegal.
Actual fraud in free exchange is.
This is not fraud. The fact that the box of Barilla you buy is not made in Italy does not make the claim fraud.
I’m still puzzled on how the the judge determined the plaintiff’s were “injured” by a product that was safe to consume.
Barilla really is my favorite pasta and, while living in Italy, it was the pasta I bought there.
I’ve driven past the factory near Milan. The place is HUGE.
I lived in Naples from 2001 to 2015 and probably ate over a ton of Barilla pasta. I really can’t say I noticed any difference between the Italian stuff and the American stuff.
And we wonder why so many people and companies are fleeing CA?
Yes another reason to leave California, as if another reason is needed.
I just wish they would quit coming to Colorado. The National Socialist Democrat WOKE Party has pretty much destroyed the state.
I remember when Colorado was a FREE State and we weren’t ruled over by tyrants.
Does anyone really care? currentsitguy says it really well. Just read the label.
Of course since it was filed in California that begs the question “Can They Read Labels” and understand what it means. Seems to me the Judge was overly serious about this case. “The plaintiffs suffered injury”. Oh the gross inhumanity of their injury and suffering! The judge should have chuckled, dismissed the case and moved on. There are vastly greater issues in the world.
Californians…..what more does it require to see the lunacy in their complaint?
These are folks looking for a settlement…..cash…..not anything else!
A Judge with a grain of commonsense would have sent them packing…..with instructions to not return with such a bogus claim.
Now…the question that is begged……is Barilla the number one pasta in Italy?
Even if not….what does it matter…..as I am aware the California Wine Industry claims to have the World’s best Wines.
Who next gets sued by these Loons?
For instance…… https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2021/12/the-worlds-best-california-wines
The question is not whether Barrilla is Italy’s #1 pasta. It is whether the totality of Barilla’s packaging is misleading consumers into believing its product is from Italy. From reading above, the box really exploits the Italian selling point, but you have to go to their website to find out it’s made in Iowa.
Not to knock Iowa (or Wisconsin or California), but I grew up asking for Roquefort dressing on my salad, but there is a reason they call it blue cheese now, and sparkling wine instead of Champagne.
There is a benefit to allowing consumers (and their attorneys) to bring lawsuits like this. It allows capitalism to be self regulating. This does not require some bureaucracy to issue some pasta origin notification regulation, just a general law that says you cannot mislead the public and the plaintiff’s bar will do the rest. Companies are generally honest with their representations to avoid lawsuits like this. Class actions are better and cheaper (overall) than corrupt bureaucracies.
tommylotto: Actually, you don’t have to go to their website — all you have to do is read the damn label. It’s there, printed in English. These lazy, money-hungry, grifters and the stupid judge who is enabling this are the ones in the wrong. This isn’t “capitalism correcting itself.” It’s a grift.
Yep. Right on the label that it idn’t Made in Italy.
https://yeahanotherblogger.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/img_3259.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81taKyl7wjL._SL1500_.jpg
I am just going by Turley’s article, which says that the company argued the disclosure was on its website. If the disclosure was actually on the freakin’ box, I think they would have argued that! This must have been a box without such a disclosure so the only disclosure available to the company was the one on the website.
As for damages, if American pasta costs $1.50 and Italian pasta costs $2.00, and the consumer paid $1.75 for American pasta that he thought was Italian, the damages would be a quarter. That one quarter in damages would give that one consumer standing to sue on behalf of all consumers and sue for the millions of quarters on behalf of a class of all consumers.
We are over-lawyered. We need to focus more on reputation and less on suits that enrich the legal profession while increasing prices. It used to be that companies based their branding on trust. They didn’t want to lose that trust, so it was a big incentive not to deal unfairly with their customers. Unfortunately, too many want a third party to determine who is trustworthy and who is not.
To have this suit make it to the court and for the court to reach this decision, the plaintiff’s had to claim (and court agree with a straight face), they were injured in such a way they should be awarded damages. “…a probability that a significant portion of the general consuming public or of targeted consumers, acting reasonably in the circumstances, could (<<keyword) be misled”, is proof of what injury, exactly, mental anguish? Violation of their "safe space"? And what value is their "injury" award worth?
OH, THE HUMANITY!!
As a part-time graphic designer in my retirement, I just made a company logo for a local bakery/Italian food market that says: “Italian – American Market” and I incorporated the Italian flag as per customer’s request since his family is of direct Italian descent, having operated this generational bakery since they first immigrated to America in the late 1890’s. His bread bag says”______’s Italian Bread. Will he be sued?
Oh, the humanity!
How hard is it to pick up a box to look for the country or origin? I do this for every single thing I buy. I mean you do it for the nutrition label, just look a little further down.
Sometimes that is insufficient, though. For example, could be a Chinese company operating in Thailand but the product says Made in Thailand.
I do appreciate the country of origin being printed on labels, though, overall. It helps some.
Caveat emptor is a true and heavy term. Who knew you’d have to do a boatload of research on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. you purchase.
We do not have to do a boatload of research.
i do not care where my pasta is made. If you do – you know where to look.
I care what it costs, how it tastes and how safe it is.
The price is right on the shelf,
if I do not like how it tastes I will not buy it again.
And I trust that the maker has not poisoned it – because they would be out of business in seconds and possibly in jail.